Delhi court orders OpIndia to remove articles on Swati Chaturvedi

A Delhi court recently directed the OpIndia to remove two articles, published around six years ago, about journalist Swati Chaturvedi, holding that the continued circulation of the pieces could cause “serious and irreparable injury” to her professional reputation while the defamation suit remains pending.

Meenu Kaushik, district judge, Patiala House Court in an order dated May 13 noted that the “source articles” produced by the defendants did not prima facie support the claims made against Ms Chaturvedi and accepted her argument that many allegedly defamatory statements could not be linked to material available in the public domain.

The court made a particularly sharp observation regarding one of the most serious allegations. It said the material filed by OpIndia “prima facie nowhere shows” that Chaturvedi was involved in “running extortion rackets” as alleged in the impugned articles.

Court observed that because Ms. Chaturvedi is a journalist and public commentator, her “professional reputation and credibility are of paramount importance.”

“….the plaintiff shall suffer irreparable loss and injury in case the impugned articles continued to be in public domain as the same may continue to cause harm to the reputation of the plaintiff.” it said while directing OpIndia to remove/block the impugned articles during the pendency of the suit/till further orders.

In their defence, OpIndia had argued that any injunction would amount to a restriction on free speech and relied on legal precedents cautioning courts against prior restraint on media publications.

However, the court held that temporarily taking down the articles would not prejudice the defendants because they remain free to establish the truth of their claims during trial.

Ms. Chaturvedi is represented by advocate Akshat Gupta.