A Chandigarh court has restrained Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia, Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira and former judge justice Ranjit Singh from publishing, circulating or making any unverified defamatory content against Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s wife Gurpreet Kaur over allegations of demand of ₹5 crore as bribe to help a rape accused.
Civil judge (junior division) Prikshit passed the ex-parte order on an application filed by Kaur demanding that all these persons be asked not to issue “the defamatory, false, unverified and unauthenticated statements on their social media accounts” and to take down the statements made on social media, which she said had been “concocted to tarnish the image”.
The court asserted that reputation was an integral part of the dignity of each individual, and there was a need to balance freedom of speech and expression with the right to reputation.
“In the present case, if the freedom of speech and expression of defendants is not curtailed so as to prevent the defamation of the plaintiff, she will suffer irreparable loss due to the fact that she is an eminent public figure being the wife of the sitting CM and the issuance of notice to the defendants will cause further loss to her. So, the balance of convenience lies in her favour,” the court said.
{{/usCountry}}“In the present case, if the freedom of speech and expression of defendants is not curtailed so as to prevent the defamation of the plaintiff, she will suffer irreparable loss due to the fact that she is an eminent public figure being the wife of the sitting CM and the issuance of notice to the defendants will cause further loss to her. So, the balance of convenience lies in her favour,” the court said.
{{/usCountry}}Moreover, no irreparable loss will occur to defendants if they were restricted from posting on social media platforms, defamatory notes qua the plaintiff pertaining to the alleged demand of bribe in a rape case without any verification, the court said, adding that facts of the case had prompted it to the pass the interim order without even getting responses form the respondent parties.
According to Kaur’s application, justice Ranjit Singh made allegations against her on August 20, 2026, and these were further carried by one Bhawna Nair, also made a party in this case, on her news platform.
As of Majithia, the court was told that he had allegedly started a campaign against her on September 1 at a press conference in Chandigarh. The broadcast was subsequently uploaded on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Similar, accusations have been made against Khaira, adding that all these persons kept making allegations despite one Simranjeet Hundal, who was accused of mediating between Kaur and the rape accused, terming all allegations as false.
The court examined the material posted by these persons on social media and also the clarificatory post made by Hundal.
“Therefore, the very basis of the posts, videos, conferences as well as the news have been prima facie shown to be untrue,” the court observed referring to the allegations levelled by them and the statement from Hundal rubbishing claims made by them.
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‘Material posted without ascertaining authenticity‘
The court held that Kaur had established a prima facie case in her favour and that the posts, videos and photographs concerning her did not appear to be substantiated by any other cogent proof. The defendants appeared to have posted the material without ascertaining its authenticity, it recorded.
“(in view of material mentioned above)..the defendants are hereby temporary restrained from publishing, circulating or making any unverified defamatory content pertaining to the alleged demand of bribe, prejudicial in the interest of plaintiff on social media platforms or through any other medium till the further orders of the court,” the court directed, however, declined to order removal or deletion of the existing posts, videos and photographs at this stage.
Facebook, Instagram and X authorities have not been impleaded as parties, therefore, no specific direction for forcible removal could be issued, it said, asking the parties to respond by September 30.
The rape accused in question is social media influencer Gurvinder Singh, alias Guri Chahal, who has been booked in two separate cases in Mohali and Amritsar. He is learnt to have left the country.
In both the FIRs, police have filed cancellation reports, prompting victims to level allegations of bias.
In August, the National Human Rights Commission had taken note of the allegations that ₹5 crore were allegedly sought to settle these two rape cases, and had sought responses from Punjab’s chief secretary and director general of police. A PIL has also been filed by a Mohali resident demanding the transfer of the probe into the FIRs to the CBI.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been refuting these allegations, terming them as “motivated” to tarnish the state government’s image.