Delhi HC grants injunction against airing Singhvi CD

The Delhi high court on Friday granted a permanent injunction against the publication, circulation, dissemination and distribution of a CD about Congress spokesman and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi. HT reports.

The Delhi High Court on Friday granted a permanent injunction against the publication, circulation, dissemination and distribution of a CD about Congress spokesman and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi.

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The direction came after Mukesh Kumar Lal, Singhvi's former driver, told the court that he had fabricated and morphed the CD and circulated it out of anger and vengeance against the Congress spokesman.

The statement came in response to a civil suit filed by Singhvi and his former colleague Abhimanyu Bhandari against the driver and a media house, seeking injunction against the distribution and publication of the CD that they had said was “fabricated and morphed”.

According to Singhvi's plea, his driver for several years, Lal, had left the job on March 17. Later, he sent SMSes to Singhvi and called him to threaten and blackmail him with the use of the said CD.

Singhvi's petition claimed that the SMSes referred to a CD, which Lal said he would distribute to all media houses, severely embarrassing and defaming his name and reputation.

Singhvi and his family had filed a detailed written complaint and registered it with the police on March 29. But before he could be apprehended, the driver circulated copies of the CD to some channels around April 10.

Hearing the matter, justice Reva Khetrapal had on April 13 granted comprehensive injunction against publishing, telecasting and broadcasting the contents of the CD. The News Broadcasters Association had also issued an advisory.

On being apprehended, the driver stated that he had fabricated the CDs. He filed a detailed reply in the suit, accepting fabrication of the CD. While the media house said it was not interested in pursuing the matter, the plaintiffs also absolved it of any wrongdoing. They also pointed out that no issue of public interest of any kind can be said to be involved in the CD.

The court confirmed the injunction by stating that it was issuing “an order of permanent injunction in favour of plaintiffs and against each and all of the defendants … restraining them from publishing, broadcasting distributing or disseminating in any form or manner whatsoever any defamatory material including the purported CD”.