Delhi HC tells news portal to drop ‘defamatory’ article on chief secy

Kumar claimed that the role he played in inquiries into the Delhi excise policy case “seems to be one of the foundations for the article”

The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed news portal The Wire to take down an article claiming a link between chief secretary Naresh Kumar’s son Karan Chauhan with an issue pertaining to the alleged enhanced valuation of a parcel of land acquired by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the Dwarka expressway project.

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The court’s order came on a plea by Kumar, seeking directions to The Wire and its reporter Meetu Jain from publishing, commenting, communicating, and circulating “false and libellous posts” on social media, and a minimum compensation of ₹2.05 crore for defaming him.

Kumar, appearing through senior advocate Maninder Singh, argued that the article was published to enable a quarter to get active on social media to target his image by re-tweeting. He also claimed that the role he played in inquiries into the Delhi excise policy case “seems to be one of the foundations for the article”.

The Wire, appearing through advocate Sarim Naved that there were government reports which the chief secretary had suppressed. “If such orders are passed, how will we question civil servants and governments? I am not responsible for retweets,” the counsel added.

However, the court held that the news report was a “litany of misrepresentations and convoluted insinuations made recklessly by disregarding the truth to inflict damage to Kumar’s reputation”.

“The impugned article/publication seeks to castigate the plaintiff as to how he ‘may have handled the matter’. The article/defamatory publication further proceeds to suggest that plaintiff has a potential ‘conflict of interest in the matter. Again, this insinuation is thoroughly misconceived inasmuch as enhancement of compensation was an outcome of arbitration proceedings, in which the plaintiff was clearly not involved,” justice Sachin Datta observed in the order.

The court observed that though freedom of speech and expression is sacrosanct, a person’s reputation earned over several decades cannot be sacrificed at the altar of such freedom when the publication contains unsubstantiated allegations.

Justice Datta also restrained The Wire and Jain from posting, circulating or publishing any similar defamatory content against the chief secretary.