Delhi court says it will hear media before deciding Anil Ambani's plea to stop reporting on ₹41k crore fraud allegations

A Delhi court on Monday refused to pass an an ex parte interim injunction to restrain media from reporting on allegations that businessman Anil Ambani's companies committed a fraud of over ₹41,000 crores. .Senior Civil Judge Vivek Beniwal of Karkardooma Courts said he will hear the media organisations involved before passing an order on Ambani's plea. Thus, it refused immediate relief to Ambani in the interim injunction application filed in the defamation case against Cobrapost, the publishers of The Economic Times and The Times of India newspapers and unnamed defendants.The Court issued summons in the main suit by Ambani and also issued notice to the defendants on the interim injunction application.“I don’t think you have a very good case right now warranting protection of ex parte ad interim injunction. I will issue summons. No ex parte order,” the Court said.The Court will now hear the defendants/ media organisations before passing any interim order.Advocate Vijay Aggarwal appeared for Ambani and stated that the Court may record his submissions that he is not pressing for an ex-parte order at the moment. “My lord may issue summons and hear both parties,” he said. The Court then said that the case would be heard on December 5..Ambani moved the Court against Cobrapost.com, Bennett Coleman and Company Limited (publishers of The Economic Times and The Times of India), Live Media & Publishers Pvt Ltd and John Doe parties as defendants to the case. The defamation case concerned a Cobrapost report dated October 30 which alleged that Ambani's Reliance Group had committed a financial fraud exceeding ₹41,921 crore through the diversion of funds from group companies since 2006. The allegations were reported in several other publications, including The Economic Times. It is Ambani’s case that he continues to be defamed by these reports. .Advocates Vijay Aggarwal, Naman Joshi, Guneet Sidhu, Rahul, Verdan Jain, Muskan Aggarwal, Rajat Jain and Yash Aggarwal appeared for Anil Ambani. .Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.