Delhi High Court denies relief to The Telegraph in 21-year-old defamation case by ITC Hotels

The Delhi High Court on Saturday denied relief to Anandabazar Patrika Private Limited (ABP), the publishers of The Telegraph newspaper, in a 21-year-old defamation case filed against them by ITC Hotels. 

A Division Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar rejected an appeal by ABP seeking dismissal of a defamation case filed against it by ITC.

The appeal was filed against a 2016 order of a single judge dismissing ABP's plea.

“Consequently, and in view of the aforegoing, this Court does not find it appropriate to interfere with the Impugned Order passed on 10.01.2017. With these observations, the present Appeals are dismissed. All pending applications stand closed,” the Court ordered.

The Telegraph had published a piece in April 2004 on the then Chairman of ITC Hotels, Yogesh Chander Deveshwar. He was also Chairman of IIM Calcutta at the time.

The article, published in the backdrop of IIM Calcutta accepting fee cuts at the institution under pressure from the then NDA government, stated that Deveshwar has always maintained close relations with the party in power and is “always with the powers-that-be — red, green or saffron”.

Following the publication of the story, Deveshwar filed a defamation suit against the paper before the Calcutta High Court, seeking ₹550 crore in damages. ITC Hotels filed a separate defamation case before the Delhi High Court. 

ABP filed applications before the Delhi High Court for rejection of the suit on the ground that a case was already pending before the Calcutta High Court. It also sought a stay on the proceedings. Both these applications were rejected by a single-judge on August 3, 2016.

The media group then filed an appeal before the Division Bench, which was rejected by the Court on Friday. 

In the detailed judgement, the Division Bench observed that ITC was claiming that its reputation had been tarnished because of the article which was circulated across the country and, therefore, substantial issues are involved in Delhi. 

“Moreover, the Respondents/plaintiffs [ITC Hotels] in the present suit claim independent right of damages, apart from the suit filed at Calcutta by YCD [Yogesh Chander Deveshwar] in personal capacity along with ITC Ltd. Hence, substantial issues involved in the Delhi suit, which was subsequently instituted, is not directly and substantially in issue in the Calcutta suit. Moreover, the Respondents/Plaintiffs in both the suits are not the exact same,” the Court noted. 

The Court then proceeded to dismiss the appeal. 

Senior Advocate Darpan Wadhwa with advocates Arijit Mazumdar, Riya Dhingra, Amer and Bhaskar Anand. 

Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar with advocates LK Bhushan and Raashi Beri represented ITC Hotel. 

[Read Judgment]