HC refuses to stay order restraining IMA chief from using his post to ‘propagate any religion’

New Delhi The Delhi high court on Monday refused to stay an order of the trial court which had asked Indian Medical Association (IMA) president Dr Johnrose Austin Jayalal to refrain from using the organisation’s platform “for propagating any religion”

New Delhi The Delhi high court on Monday refused to stay an order of the trial court which had asked Indian Medical Association (IMA) president Dr Johnrose Austin Jayalal to refrain from using the organisation’s platform “for propagating any religion”.

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Justice Asha Menon said that she will not pass any ex-parte order as nobody appeared on behalf of the person on whose complaint the trial court had passed the order on June 4. It said the high court will have to look into the order passed by the trial court and cannot take a superficial view.

The court issued notice to Rohit Jha who had filed a suit contending that Jayalal was using the IMA’s platform to propagate Christianity and that he must be restrained from writing, speaking in media, or publishing any content which is defamatory to Hindu religion or ayurveda.

The suit had alleged that Jayalal had started a defamatory campaign against the Hindu religion “by way of promoting Christianity, in the garb of proving superiority of allopathic medicines over ayurveda in treatment of Covid-19 patients”.

On June 4, the trial court judge recorded in his order: “He shall not use the platform of IMA for propagating any religion and rather shall concentrate on welfare of the medical fraternity and progress in the medical field.”

The court had held that there was no need to issue a judicial restraining order since Jayalal has undertaken not to indulge in activity offending any other religion.

The order added that the IMA chief will not indulge in any activity contrary to the principles enshrined in the Constitution of India and shall maintain the dignity of the position chaired by him.

Challenging the trial court’s order, advocate Tanmaya Mehta, representing Jayalal, claimed that the IMA chief never gave such an assurance to the trial court since he has not done anything wrong.

He sought to stay the observations made against Jayalal in the trial court’s court order, saying they were affecting his reputation as he was heading a body which has 3.5 lakh doctors as its members.

He contended that there was no television debate between Jayalal and yoga guru Ramdev and that he was not propagating any religion, including Christianity. He further said that the suit before the trial court was based on fake news.

If anyone promotes allopathy, this does not mean that the person was asking for conversion into Christianity, the counsel said, adding that Jayalal was not against Ayurveda but against mixopathy.

He said that Jayalal never uttered any remarks against Hinduism nor ever tried to forcefully convert any Indian of any religion into Christianity.

“The act of appellant (Jayalal), if any, does not defame respondent/plaintiff (Jha) therein per se or cause any per se offence, causing per se injury. Accordingly, the suit claiming defamation against a class is not maintainable,” the appeal read.

Warning Jayalal, the trial court had emphasised that any kind of unguarded or loose comment could not be expected from someone chairing a responsible post like his. “IMA is a prestigious institution...such a platform cannot be used to propagate an individual’s views on any religion,” it noted.

The court cited a couplet by poet Mohd Iqbal - ‘Mazhab Nahi Sikhata Apas Mein Bair Rakhna; Hindi Hai Hum Watan Hai Hindustan Humara; Saare Jahan se Acha Hindustan Humara (Religion does not teach us to fight against each other. We are all Indians. Our India is the best.)’