Journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi have challenged the recent Delhi court's gag order restraining them from publishing any defamatory content against businessman Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL).
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.
The journalists have now filed two separate appeals before the district court against the civil court order.
One appeal is by Thakurta and the other appeal has been filed collectively by Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi.
It has been argued that AEL has not been mentioned in their news reports and they only refer to Gautam Adani or the Adani Group.
"It is submitted that a bare perusal of the reproduced portions of the alleged defamatory articles clearly reveals that at no place has the Plaintiff been called out, referred to, or even remotely mentioned. In each and every impugned publication, the references are confined exclusively to Mr. Gautam Adani or to the Adani Group," the petition states.
Thakurta in his appeal has said that the Court passed an over-broad and all-encompassing restraining order without specifying which content was found to be defamatory.
In the defamation suit before the civil judge, Adani Enterprises had alleged 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.
The appeal on behalf of Thakurta was filed through advocates Apar Gupta, Indumugi C and Naman Kumar.
The appeal on behalf of Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi was filed by NG Law Chambers through advocate Nakul Gandhi.