"Not totally false": Delhi High Court on claim that Mahua Moitra asked questions in parliament for gifts from businessman

The Delhi High Court on Monday said that the allegation that Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra shared her parliamentary login credential with businessman Darshan Hiranandani and received gifts from him are not "totally false [Mahua Moitra v Nishikant Dubey & Ors]..Justice Sachin Datta returned this prima facie opinion as he rejected the interim application filed by Moitra to restrain the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai from making these allegations.The Court said that it cannot be said that allegations levelled by Dehadrai and Dubey are “wholly false and unsubstantiated, and/or made with reckless disregard towards the truth”..The Court observed that it is conspicuous that Moitra did not disclose in her defamation suit that she had shared her parliamentary login credentials with businessman Darshan Hiranandani and received gifts from him."There was nothing which prevented the plaintiff [Moitra] from making full disclosure in the plaint as regards the background of the sharing of her login credentials with Darshan Hiranandani, and explaining the receipt of gifts from him. However, the omission on the part of the plaintiff to do so is conspicuous, when viewed in the light of the material placed on record by the defendants [Dubey and Dehadrai] in the form of (i) the public statements of the plaintiff herself; (ii) the aforementioned affidavit of Darshan Hiranandani; (iii) the report of the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha," the Court noted..It, therefore, held that no prima case was made out to pass injunction order against Dubey and Dehadrai..Moitra sued Dubey and Dehadrai for defamation after they alleged that she asked questions in parliament and shared her parliament account login credentials with Hiranandani in return for favours and expensive gifts.Based on these allegations, the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee had suggested Moitra’s removal from the lower house following which she was expelled from the parliament on December 8, 2023..In her plea, Moitra rebuffed the allegations and said that Hiranandani is her friend and there has been no quid pro quo.She said that allegations are part of political vendetta.On the other hand, Dehadrai and Dubey claimed that Moitra gave complete access to her online Lok Sabha account to Hiranandani who used the same to post parliamentary questions of his liking.50 of the 61 questions Moitra asked in parliament were by Hiranandani, it was claimed..Advocates Samudra Sarangi, Shruti Raina, Saloni Jain, Nitya Jain and Akash Jaini appeared for Mahua Moitra.Nishikant Dubey was represented through Advocates Abhimanyu Bhandari, Rishi K Awasthi, Roohe Hina Dua, Shreya Arora and Avinash Ankit.Senior Advocate Sanjoy Ghose along with advocates Mohd Tasnimul Hassan, Siddharth Sharma, Martin G George, Pulkit Agarwal, Rohan Mandal, KP Jayaram, Raghav Sehgal and Sagar Sharma represented Jai Anant Dehadrai..[Read Judgment]