Newslaundry, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta appeals against Adani reporting gag transferred

Digital news platform Newslaundry on Monday moved a district court in Delhi challenging a recent gag order by a civil court restraining them from publishing any defamatory content against businessman Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL).

The matter came up for hearing before district judge Sunil Chaudhary who said that it would be proper that the matter be listed before another district judge, Ashish Aggarwal, who had last week lifted the gag order with respect to the same matter on appeal by certain journalists.

Though the counsel for Adani objected to the matter going before the same judge, judge Chaudhary turned down the same and directed that the matter be listed on Tuesday before judge Ashish Aggarwal at 10 am.

"Let matter be heard by the same judge. This is being done to avoid any contradictory view by this court. It is appropriate if the case is heard by the same judge," judge Chaudhary directed.

A similar appeal filed by journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta was also transferred to judge Aggarwal.

In the order passed on September 6, senior civil judge Anuj Kumar Singh of the Rohini Court had ordered removal of the defamatory content against AEL and also asked the journalists to refrain from publishing unverified and defamatory information about the company.

This prompted the digitial platform to appeal before the district court against the civil court order. 

Two appeals were already filed last week by journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi against the same order.

In one of those appeals, the district judge Ashish Aggarwal had lifted the suspension.

The appeal by Thakurta and Newslaundry will now come up before him tomorrow.

The case stemmed from defamation suit filed before the civil judge by Adani Enterprises alleging that certain journalists, activists and organizations damaged its reputation and cost its stakeholders billions of dollars by causing massive loss to its image, brand equity and credibility of India’s brand as a country.

Adani Enterprises argued that these journalists and activists have “aligned with anti-India interests and have been continuously targeting Adani Enterprises’ infrastructure and energy projects which are critical to India’s infrastructure and energy security and have disrupted these projects with ulterior motives”.

AEL referred to the articles published on paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org and adanifiles.com.au and said that these websites have repeatedly published defamatory content against the company, the Adani Group, as well as its founder and chairman Gautam Adani. 

After considering the case, the civil court ruled that AEL had made a prima facie case for grant of interim injunction. 

This prompted the journalists to approach the district court.

Newslaundry had last week filed a separate petition before the Delhi High Court against the Central government's order to take down videos and content about Gautam Adani and AEL.

The Central government's take down order itself was passed pursuant to the civil court's gag order.

Newslaundry's petition before the High Court is slated for hearing today.