Deve Gowda ordered to pay Rs 2 crore to NICE for 'loss of reputation'

An Additional City Civil and Sessions Court has directed former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to pay Rs 2 crore to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Limited for the loss of reputation. The NICE had filed an original suit against the statements made by Deve Gowda in an interview to a vernacular news channel in 2011.

The company claimed that it sustained loss to the reputation due to the statements made by Deve Gowda in the interview and claimed damages of Rs 10 crore. The court said that Deve Gowda has failed to substantiate the statements made by him in the interview. “Therefore, there is nothing on record to show that the allegations made by the defendant (Deve Gowda) against the plaintiff Company (NICE) in the questioned interview are supported with any cogent documentary proof,” the court said.

Deve Gowda had made allegations against the NICE and the project taken up by it. The court noted that the project has been upheld by the Karnataka High Court and the Apex Court in many judgments. “Hence, if defamatory statements like the present one are allowed to be made in future, definitely implementation of such a massive project like the present one which is undertaken in the larger public interest of the State of Karnataka is going to be delayed,” the court said.

The court has permanently restrained Deve Gowda from making any defamatory statements against NICE in any media, news channel or in any other means of mass communication in the future.