Delhi High Court seeks Newslaundry's reply to Eduquity defamation suit

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued summons to online news platform Newslaundry in a defamation case filed by exam services provider Eduquity Career Technologies, a company that recently became the new exam-conducting partner for the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) [Eduquity Career Technologies Private Limited v Newslaundry Media Private Limited & Ors] .

Justice Jyoti Singh also issued notices to Newslaundry on the interim relief application filed by Eduquity.

The Court ordered the news platform to file its response in two weeks.

In mid-2025, the SSC awarded the contract to conduct several major recruitment exams to Eduquity Career Technologies, replacing longtime vendor Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

However, several candidates raised objections over glitches, delays and cancellations of SSC exams and some blamed Eduquity for it.

The firm sued Newslaundry over a July 2024 article titled 'Years before NEET row, NTA contracted 2 exam firms with murky record'.

In the story, Newslaundry reported that Eduquity's name had surfaced in several paper leaks and that in 2020, the Central Directorate General of Training had declared the firm ineligible to conduct any exams.

The counsel appearing for Eduquity told the High Court today that several defamatory videos have surfaced over social media in recent days and that these videos refer to Newslaundry's article.

"They [the videos] are amplifying the article published," the counsel said.

Justice Singh questioned Newslaundry about whether it had verified the allegations before publishing.

"Why would you do this at all? Have you verified?" the Court asked.

Advocate Bani Dikshit appeared for Newslaundry and said that the story was published more than a year ago and that the reporting was based on truth.

"We wrote to them before publishing," Dikshit added.

The Court then proceeded to issue summons and notice and asked the news platform to file its response.