A Delhi court has set aside an order asking four journalists to take down alleged defamatory content against Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL), saying the effect of removal of the articles by an ad interim ex parte order was “sweeping” and it had the “effect of decreeing the suit itself without a trial”.
In the September 18 order, which was made available on Friday morning, the court said, “I find that the case is fit for stay of the impugned order dated September 6 since extensive directions have been passed by the trial court without hearing the appellants.”
Acting on AEL’s defamation complaint, a civil judge directed 10 defendants, including the four journalists, to take down the contentious material, like articles and social media posts, already published on various platforms, including websites, within a stipulated period.
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19 Sept 2025
District judge Ashish Aggarwal heard the challenge to the civil judge’s decision and held that unless appellants were heard, the civil court couldn’t have inferred that the journalists made “unverified, inaccurate and irresponsible statements”.
The district court said the civil court order was “not sustainable” and asked it to pass a fresh order after hearing the appellants and AEL. Journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskanta Das and Ayush Joshi, represented by advocate Vrinda Grover, appealed against the civil court’s September 6 order restraining them from publishing or circulating alleged unverified and defamatory content against AEL.
“Until this exercise is undertaken and a determination is made, at least prima facie, that the articles are incorrect, defamatory and unverified, the articles cannot be shunted out from the public domain, lest this will fall foul of Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution and will be a serious violation of the freedom of speech and expression,” it said.
The court said by the civil judge’s order, AEL was given the liberty to expand the scope of the suit by bringing within its fold articles that could be written in future by other persons, even though there was no finding yet of them being libelous.
