New Delhi: Republic TV and Arnab had moved a contempt of court petition naming Jaideep Bose, Editor-In-Chief, The Times of India, Indu Jain Chairperson, Vineet Jain, Managing Director, RajanVaid, Assistant General Manager of Bennet Coleman.
The petition alleged that the Respondents/Contemnors had deliberately and with full knowledge, published and circulated through their newspapers, namely, the Times of India and Economic Times and through their news websites, an article pertaining to the suit pending before the Hon’ble Court in express violation of the order dated 26th May 2017.
Bennet Coleman’s lawyer Rajiv Nayyar, expressing regret, submitted that the publishing of the said article was an error and happened due to a communication gap. Wherein the report was inadvertently published and claimed that they had no intention to breach the court’s order of 26th May 2017, which directed the parties not to publish any news on the ongoing proceedings.
The counsels for Republic TV and Arnab, MalvikaTrivedi and DebarshiDutta, Partner, Phoenix Legal, showed the offending articles in the various edition of Times of India and Economic Times stressing that these were colored, one sided and mislead the public and the readers into believing that Republic TV/Arnab were being hauled up in the court.
The judge took note of this attempt to paint the wrong picture about the defendants – Republic TV and Arnab in spite of the express order directing them not to publish anything. The counsel for Republic TV and Arnab pointed out that this was exactly the kind of mischief that the court order had aimed to prevent.
The judge agreed and ordered Bennet Coleman to publish the order in question in their newspaper within 3 days.
However, an irked Justice Manmohan observed that both the parties should bring down the temperature and said“There is scope for everyone in this profession.”
The counsel for Bennet Coleman assured the court that they would not violate the court’s order in the future.
