Delhi High Court Refuses Interim Relief to OpIndia in Swati Chaturvedi Defamation Case

An appeal preferred by the website OpIndia assailing the May 13 injunction order passed by the District Judge Meenu Kaushik of Patiala House Court, whereby OpIndia was directed to remove/takedown two defamatory articles about journalist Swati Chaturvedi, was listed before the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.

Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak, appearing for OpIndia, contended that the trial court’s order deserved to be set aside and pressed for a stay on the injunction. This prayer for a stay was opposed by Advocate Akshat Gupta, representing journalist Swati Chaturvedi.

Justice Manoj K Ohri, while issuing notice on the appeal, declined to stay the trial court order and fixed the matter for hearing on August 20, observing that staying the order would amount to virtually allowing the appeal, which cannot be done without hearing both sides.  Consequently, OpIndia remains bound by the trial court’s direction to remove or block the articles in question during the pendency of the defamation suit.

The trial court had, while passing the order, noted that the “source articles” relied on by OpIndia did not prima facie support the allegation that journalist Swati Chaturvedi was running an extortion racket.

It further observed that her professional reputation and credibility were of “paramount importance” and that continued circulation of the articles would cause “serious and irreparable injury” to her reputation pending adjudication of the suit.

Advocate Akshat Gupta, appearing for Chaturvedi, stated, “The Hon’ble High Court saw no reason to interfere with the order passed by the Ld. Trial Court. The articles in question have to be removed. Swati is a highly reputed journalist, and such baseless allegations of running extortion rackets seriously harm her reputation and her ability to practice her profession. I am glad that in this long, drawn-out battle, for the time being, we have succeeded in safeguarding Swati’s reputation.”