The Delhi High Court recently quashed the bailable warrants against The Morning Context editor Ashish Mishra and director Priya Bubne in a criminal defamation complaint filed by OFB [Ashish K Mishra & Anr vs State of NCT of Delhi and Anr.].Justice Arun Monga passed the order on July 28, observing that they live in the United Kingdom and they do not appear to be wilfully evading appearance before the trial court."in view of the fact that the petitioners currently reside in the UK, and, particularly, in view of the nature of the alleged offence (defamation), which is bailable in nature, and the fact that cognizance has yet to be taken, I am of There does not appear to be any wilful attempt by the petitioners to evade the legal process. The impugned order is partially modified and the bailable warrants issued against the petitioners are quashed," the Court stated..On their plea seeking exemption from physical appearance before the trial court, Justice Monga said that the trial court will consider the fact that they live abroad..The Court passed the order on the quashing petition filed by Mishra and Bubna. OFB has sued them for defamation over an October 7, 2024 news article authored by journalist Abir Dasgupta titled 'OfBusiness co-founders and management allegedly assaulted an employee, says FIR.' The article reported on an incident where a former employee of OFB alleged that he was kidnapped, threatened and physically assaulted at the company’s Gurugram headquarters.The company argued that The Morning Context article was false and was published without verifying or conducting any proper due diligence to catch eyeballs by maligning the company..The trial court had on May 30 noted that despite the order, the proposed accused in the case had failed to appear. Therefore, the Court had ordered that the summons will be issued to them through the police. Further, on June 4, the accused failed to appear yet again, forcing the Court to direct the police to comply with its previous order and ensure their presence. While the authorised representative of The Morning Context and Dasgupta appeared before the court, Mishra and Bubne could not. This prompted the Court to issue bailable warrants against them..Notably, OFB has also filed a ₹2 crore defamation suit against The Morning Context in the Delhi High Court.In this case, Justice Vikas Mahajan on October 15, 2024, came to a prima facie conclusion that article cannot be protected "under the defences of truth, fair comment and privilege" and thus ordered its take down..Senior Advocate Rebecca John with advocates Riddima Sharma, Jay Kumar Bhardwaj, Disha Bajaj, Nilanjan, Pranjal Patel and Ayush Honka appeared for Ashish Mishra and Priya Bubne.Assistant Public Prosecutor Digam Singh Dagar appeared for the State.Senior Advocate Tanvir Ahmed Mir, with Advocates Sanyam Khetarpal and Lisa Sankrit appeared for OFB..[Read Order]
