[Dwarka Expressway Row] Delhi High Court orders The Wire to take down article on Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered online news portal The Wire to take down its article on Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar in relation to the land acquisition by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the Dwarka Expressway project..Justice Sachin Datta passed the order after Kumar filed a defamation case against The Wire and its reporter Meetu Jain..Kumar moved the Court seeking directions to The Wire to take down the article and not publish any defamatory material against him in future. Directions were also sought to Twitter and Google to take down the posts or links or references to the story. .The Wire had published a report on November 9, 2023 titled 'Links of son of Delhi Chief Secretary to Beneficiary's Family in Land Over-Valuation Case Raise Questions.' The report said that Naresh Kumar's son Karan Chauhan had links with a family which benefitted from the hiked compensation when a plot of land measuring 19 acre in Delhi's Bamnoli village was acquired by the NHAI for the Dwarka Expressway. Kumar then filed the present defamation suit before the High Court through advocates through Advocates Bani Dikshit, Uddhav Khanna and Krishan Kumar against The Wire and reporter Meetu Jain for defamation.He sought the takedown of the story and tweets related to the story and also prayed for directions to restrain The Wire from publishing any further defamatory allegations and to take down of tweets related to the story..In a detailed order, the Justice Datta observed that the nexus sought to be drawn between the beneficiaries of the arbitral award [enhanced compensation] and Kumar’s son was quite far-fetched.The Court came to a prima facie conclusion that the article was a “litany of misrepresentations and convoluted insinuations made in a reckless manner, without any regard for the truth, and with a view to inflict damage” Kumar’s reputation. “While freedom of speech and expression is sacrosanct, the reputation of a person earned over several decades, cannot be sacrificed at the altar of such freedom, when the impugned publication, ex-facie, contains unsubstantiated allegations and defamatory imputations, regardless of the truth,” the Court observed.It added,“In the present case, the Court has also taken note of the crescendo of politically motivated tweets/posts/comments, virtually in sync with the publication of the aforesaid article/publication dated 09.11.2023, which further validate the necessity of urgent injunctive order/s. Incidentally, one such tweet is by the author of the “preliminary report” [Delhi Vigilance Minister Atishi] sought to be relied upon by the learned counsel for defendant nos. 1 and 2. The said report, which is dated 14.11.2023, ex-facie, cannot afford any justification for the impugned article dated 09.11.2023.”.The Court, therefore, ordered The Wire and Jain to take down the article as well as the tweets/posts circulated on X (formerly Twitter).“The defendant nos. 1 and 2 [The Wire and Meetu Jain] are further directed to not post, circulate or publish any similar defamatory content against the plaintiff as set out in the impugned article/publication dated 09.11.2023.”The Court clarified that if The Wire and Jain fail to comply with the directions in 48 hours, Twitter shall take down the said posts..Earlier while hearing the matter, the Bench had told The Wire’s counsel that there should be some basis for its report casting aspersions on Kumar and that there should be some semblance of truth to the allegations. Senior Advocate Maninder Singh had appeared for Kumar and argued that the entire story was concocted with the intent to provoke social media users to tarnish his image. .Advocate Sarim Naved appeared for The Wire and said that the article raised certain questions and that it is their job to question the government and the bureaucrats. He said that the portal can justify everything that it has published. Naved also said that the Delhi government has prepared a report where these allegations have been made against Kumar..Senior Advocates Maninder Singh and Rajshekhar Rao along with advocates Bani Dikshit, Uddhav Khanna, Krishan Kumar, Rohan Jaitley, Arkaj Kumar, Rushab Aggarwal, Tanya Aggarwal, Ashita Chawla and Ajay Sabharwal appeared for Naresh Kumar.Advocate Sarim Naved and Harsh Kumar appeared for The Wire and Meetu Jain.Advocates Neel Mason, Vihan Dang, Aditi Umapathy and Pragya Jain appeared for Google..[Read Judgment]