[BREAKING] Karnataka court restrains 67 media houses from publishing defamatory content against six State Ministers on sex-for-job scandal

A Karnataka court on Saturday restrained sixty-seven media houses from airing or publishing any defamatory content against six Karnataka ministers belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in relation the alleged sex-for-job scandal that has rocked the State. .Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, Abdulrahiman A Nandgadi granted ex-parte ad-interim injunction in favour of the six ministers and restrained media houses from publishing or telecasting in a negative or sarcastic manner, contents of the CD which led to the scandal. However, the order clarified that the media houses can publish authenticated and true news on the subject after verification without making defamatory remarks against the six ministers. .The ministers, B Basavaraj, Dr K Sudhakar, BC Patil, Shivram Hebbar, HT Somashekar and KC Narayana Gowda had moved the Court after Water Resources Minister, Ramesh Jarkiholi, in the BS Yediyurappa-led Karnataka government, tendered his resignation after being accused of demanding sexual favours from an unidentified woman in exchange for a job. A CD in this regard was leaked, which ultimately resulted in Jarkholi's resignation..The six ministers prayed that media should be prevented from airing or publishing any defamatory or unauthenticated content about them in relation to the CD. ."The Defendant Nos. 1 to 14, 16 to 68 are hereby restrained by an order of an exparte ad- interim injunction from telecasting or publishing or broadcasting or distribution in any form or manner of the contents of the alleged CD or any other material, negatively, referring to the Plaintiff leading to defamatory act, his dignity assassination or creating sarcastic views about him in any manner including showing the footages and pictures involving negative spectrum, till the next date of hearing," the Court ordered..Interestingly, the six ministers were part of the seventeen rebel MLAs who had tendered their resignation from the house in July 2019 leading to the fall of Congress-JD(S) coalition government and paving the way for Yeddiyurappa led BJP to come to power in the State. .Sixty-eight media houses including daily news papers, weeklies, tabloids, television channels, social media and news websites were arraigned as defendants in the case. Since one of the defendants had filed a caveat, no order was passed against the said defendant. .The matter will be heard next on March 18.