New Delhi: Digital news platform Newslaundry has approached a district court in Delhi challenging a recent gag order passed by a civil court restraining it from publishing any alleged defamatory content against Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL).
The matter came up before District Judge Sunil Chaudhary on Monday, who directed that the case be listed before District Judge Ashish Aggarwal on Tuesday at 10 am. Judge Chaudhary noted that it would be appropriate for the same judge to hear the matter to “avoid any contradictory view,” despite objections raised by counsel for Adani.
Last week, Judge Aggarwal had lifted a similar gag order while hearing appeals filed by journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi. A similar appeal filed by Thakurta and Newslaundry will now also be heard by him.
On September 6, Senior Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh of the Rohini Court had directed removal of allegedly defamatory content against AEL and restrained journalists from publishing “unverified and defamatory” information about the company. AEL had argued that such publications damaged its reputation, hurt its stakeholders, and undermined India’s brand credibility.
The defamation suit filed by AEL cited articles published on paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org, and adanifiles.com.au, alleging that the publications had aligned with “anti-India interests” and sought to disrupt the company’s critical infrastructure and energy projects.
In parallel, Newslaundry has also approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government’s take-down order of its content on Adani, which was issued pursuant to the civil court’s gag directive. The High Court is expected to hear the petition today.
