HC refuses interim relief to Gautam Gambhir, asks media house, reporters to respond to defamation suit

As an interim relief, Gambhir sought a court order to the newspaper to immediately withdraw the alleged defamatory publications targeting him

The Delhi High Court Wednesday refused to pass an interim order "at this stage" on a plea by BJP MP Gautam Gambhir seeking directions to a media house to withdraw the alleged defamatory publications in which "false, libellous and slanderous" statements have been made against him.

The high court, however, said prima facie it was satisfied that the matter requires consideration and summons must be issued to defendants – a Hindi daily, its editor-in-chief and three reporters.

Cricketer-turned-politician Gambhir claimed in his suit the defendants were publishing "false and malicious" reports against him and sought the court's direction to them to tender unconditional apology which shall be published in all newspapers brought out and circulated by the media house.

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Justice Chandra Dhari Singh issued notice and summons to the media house and four others on the main suit. The court also issued notice to them on the application for interim relief and listed the matter for further hearing in October.

“You are a public servant, you need not be so sensitive. Any public person should be thick-skinned. Otherwise social media etc… Nowadays judges should also be thick-skinned,” the judge said.

As an interim relief, Gambhir sought a court order for the newspaper to immediately withdraw the alleged defamatory publications targeting him and to restrain it from making similar allegations during the pendency of the suit.

Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, representing Gambhir, said he was a well-known public servant and cricketer and the publication was targeting him as the articles brought out by it over the last one year were deeply malicious and vindictive in nature.

He alleged nasty averments were made against Gambhir and it seemed the media house was on some sort of mission. It was not doing fair or objective reporting, the lawyer said.

Dehadrai submitted fair reporting means input has to be taken from the person concerned (Gambhir) also before publishing any article but no opinion was sought from the politician by the newspaper or its reporters.

After going through the articles placed on record by Gambhir, the court also told senior advocate Raj Shekhar Rao, appearing for the media house, it was of the prima facie opinion that the reporter is after this person (Gambhir) and some of the words and sentences that he has used are not proper for the newspaper.

Gambhir claimed the newspaper and its certain reporters have been intentionally publishing false and defamatory articles with a view to damaging his reputation.

He alleged the defendants have directly and indirectly defamed the plaintiff while projecting the publication as an innuendo.

Gambhir's counsel said a legal notice was sent to the newspaper on November 23 last year asking it to cease and desist from making any defamatory publication against the BJP MP but no response was received to date.

Gambhir has also sought Rs 2 crore in damages which would be donated to charitable organisations identified by the plaintiff.