Mumbai: Businessman and Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani has withdrawn his defamation suit against investigative portal Cobrapost, The Economic Times, and several other media entities, over reports alleging financial fraud of more than ₹41,000 crore by companies linked to him.
The withdrawal was permitted with liberty to file a fresh suit on the same cause of action.
An order dated December 10, 2025, passed by Senior Civil Judge Vivek Beniwal of the Karkardooma Courts, records that Ambani’s counsel informed the court that he had received instructions from the plaintiff to withdraw the matter. Accepting the submission, the court disposed of the suit as withdrawn and cancelled the next date of hearing, which had earlier been fixed for January 15, 2026. The file was directed to be consigned to the record room.
“Ld. Counsel for the plaintiff submits that he has received instructions from the plaintiff to withdraw the present matter with liberty to file a fresh suit on the same cause of action… In view of the same, present suit stands disposed of being withdrawn,” the court noted.
The development comes weeks after the court had declined to grant Ambani any interim relief against the media organisations. On November 17, 2025, while issuing summons in the main defamation suit, the court refused to pass an ex parte ad interim injunction restraining the defendants from publishing or circulating the allegedly defamatory material.
Ambani had sought immediate removal of the reports without hearing the defendants. Rejecting the plea, the court held that such relief could not be granted without affording the media outlets an opportunity to be heard. The judge cautioned against imposing pre-publication or post-publication restraints in the absence of a prima facie finding that the material was false or malicious.
“Without hearing the defendants, it would not be proper to conclude that the statements or publications in question are unverified, inaccurate, malicious or irresponsible,” the court observed.
The court further held that directing the takedown of content at that stage would be premature and could infringe upon constitutionally protected free speech.
“Such a course of action risks transgressing the guarantee under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India and would constitute an unwarranted intrusion into the fundamental freedom of speech and expression,” the order said.
During the November 17 hearing, the court had also indicated that Ambani did not have a sufficiently strong case at that stage to justify interim relief. Following this observation, senior advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Ambani, chose not to press the injunction application. The court thereafter proceeded to issue summons in the suit.
Earlier, on November 13, 2025, the court had heard detailed submissions on Ambani’s plea for an ex parte ad interim injunction and had reserved orders, directing that the matter be listed for consideration on November 17.
The defendants named in the suit included Cobrapost.com, Live Media and Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd. (publisher of The Economic Times), along with John Doe entities representing unknown persons involved in the dissemination of the impugned content.
Ambani’s suit had alleged that the reports accusing his companies of large-scale financial fraud were defamatory, unverified, and had caused serious reputational damage. With the withdrawal of the suit, those allegations remain unadjudicated on merits.
