The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah, to amicably settle the criminal defamation case filed by him against news portal ‘The Wire’ and its scribes.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, while suggesting the lawyers appearing for both sides to heed its advice, posted the matter for hearing in July, hopeful of a breakthrough. Meanwhile, the court extended its interim order that asked the Gujarat trial court not to proceed with the defamation case filed by Shah against the portal and its journalists for publishing a story against him.
At the start of the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said, “Without opening the file, we want to ask senior counsel of both sides to sit together and try to sort it out.” Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the news portal while senior counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul appeared for Shah.
The Gujarat HC had on January 8 rejected a plea filed by the portal seeking quashing of the defamation complaint filed against it. Jay has separately filed a civil defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against the website over the same article.