The New Indian Express moves Supreme Court against Bombay HC barring its events outside South India

Express Publications (Madurai), publisher of The New Indian Express, has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Bombay High Court judgment that restrained it from using the New Indian Express trademark for promotional activities outside five southern States and certain Union Territories.

A Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manmohan on Monday appeared disinclined to interfere with the High Court's judgment, observing that the High Court had passed an exhaustive order.

The Court, however, adjourned the case till after Diwali vacations, on the request of Senior Advocates appearing for New Indian Express after they sought permission to file additional documents supporting their case.

The dispute between the two newspaper groups dates back to the death of newspaper baron Ramnath Goenka in 1991, which triggered disagreements between his adopted son Vivek Goenka and grandson Manojkumar Sonthalia over control of the Indian Express business.

The dispute was eventually resolved through a Memorandum of Settlement (MOS) dated February 5, 1995, which was recorded as a consent decree by the Madras High Court on April 16, 1997.

Under the settlement, the Indian Express group retained ownership of the Indian Express title, while the Madurai-based group was permitted to use the expression The New Indian Express for publishing an English-language daily newspaper in five southern States and specified Union Territories.

The settlement was subsequently modified through supplemental agreements, including one executed in August 2005, which permitted the Madurai group to use the New Indian Express title on the internet for disseminating news.

The latest round of litigation arose after The New Indian Express organised an event titled Mumbai Dialogues in September 2024.

The Indian Express group alleged that organising and promoting the event in Mumbai amounted to a violation of the territorial restrictions imposed under the settlement.

It subsequently approached the Bombay High Court seeking an injunction against the Madurai-based publisher.

On November 13, 2025, Justice RI Chagla granted an interim injunction in favour of the Indian Express group.

The order was challenged before a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court.

On June 15, 2026, a High Court Division Bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande upheld the injunction and dismissed the appeal filed by Express Publications (Madurai) Private Limited.

The Division Bench held that the Madurai-based publisher enjoyed only limited rights to use the New Indian Express mark and could not claim an independent right to promote its publication outside the territories specified in the settlement.

It rejected the publisher's argument that the settlement merely restricted the publication of newspapers outside the designated territories and did not prohibit promotional activities.

The Court also relied on a June 2015 order of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), which had restricted the territorial scope of the New Indian Express trademark registration.

The Division Bench further rejected an argument that earlier proceedings before the Delhi High Court prevented the Indian Express group from pursuing its claims.

It held that the interim findings in the earlier proceedings could not operate as res judicata since the rights of the parties had not been finally adjudicated.

The Madurai-based publisher has now approached the Supreme Court against the Division Bench's judgment.

Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Shyam Divan appeared for the New Indian Express before the Supreme Court.

Senior Advocate Darius Khambata appeared for The Indian Express.