Sucheta Dalal moves Delhi court against ban on media reports linked to Sandesara

Journalist Sucheta Dalal has moved a Delhi court challenging the order banning any news content linking Manoj Kesari Chand Sandesara or his family members to the alleged Sterling Biotech bank fraud case. District Judge Vinod Kumar Meena of the Tis Hazari Courts heard the matter on April 13 and issued notice to Manoj Sandesara, Google and Meta. The case will be heard next on April 29.

Dalal’s Moneylife magazine and digital news portal — has challenged the Civil Judge’s order of April 4, imposing a ban on Google, Meta and unknown parties (including media houses) from publishing any content linking Sandesaras to the Sterling Biotech case. The Civil Judge had passed an ex parte 41-page interim injunction and ordered Google and Meta and John Doe defendants (unknown persons) to “de-index, de-list, and de-reference the URLs and content of articles flagged by Sandesara. This included three articles and a YouTube video published by Moneylife.

It is Dalal’s case that the Civil Judge’s order was overly broad, failed to identify specific defamatory content, violates free speech, and was issued without giving her publication a chance to be heard. Moneywise has claimed it was not named directly in the original suit despite its content being targeted, and only became aware of the same after takedown notices were sent by YouTube. “The Impugned Order also fails to recognize that the Plaintiff is pursuing the defamation claim not only on behalf of him, but also on behalf of the “his family name concerning the case of Sterling Biotech Limited and bank fraud”. This effectively means that the Plaintiff is seeking reliefs on behalf of himself, his family, and Sterling Biotech Limited, even though no other family member or authorised representative of Sterling Biotech Limited is part of the Suit,” Moneywise has said. The appeal contends that the Civil Judge’s order providing an ex parte injunction effectively chokes any form of reporting, publication or criticism by Monewise and other publications concerning the Sandesaras and Sterling Biotech bank fraud case.

Advocates Apar Gupta, Indumugi C, Naman Kumar and Avanti Deshpande appeared for Moneywise Media LLP.