Lawfare, Defamation – Journalists

Anil Ambani’s Reliance has hit NDTV with a Rs 10,000-crore defamation suit for a programme on the Rafale deal, winching up the cumulative damages being sought from media outlets and political parties to at least Rs 20,000 crore this year alone. This is the largest defamation blitz in recent memory in the country, on an issue freighted with political significance in the run-up to the general election.

An international non-government organisation, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), has urged the judiciary to “ensure that powerful business groups cannot abuse the country’s legal system to silence critics”. NDTV tops the list with the Reliance notice seeking damages of Rs 10,000 crore. The National Herald, a daily associated with the Congress, and the Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh have been sued for Rs 5,000 crore each.

The Congress’s Sanjay Nirupam and Priyanka Chaturvedi said on Saturday that Anil Ambani’s Reliance had filed defamation cases of Rs 5,000 crore each against nine Congress functionaries, including both of them, in August. If confirmed, it will mean that those linked to the Congress, including the Herald, are facing defamation suits of Rs 50,000 crore. If the cases against NDTV and the AAP leader are added, the damages demanded balloon to Rs 65,000 crore, more than the value of the entire 36-plane Rafale deal.