Lawfare, Defamation – Journalists

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by The Wire   that challenged a gag order passed by a lower court in a civil defamation case filed by BJP president Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah over an article published by the news portal. Justice Paresh Upadhyay asked the petitioners, including the author of the article, Rohini Singh, and founding editors of the portal, to move the trial court to challenge the gag order.

The High Court also directed the trial court to decide the matter within 30 days.“These appeals arising from an ex-parte ad-interim impugned order of the trial court are not entertained. It would be open to the defendants to file their counter to the suit, or at least to the application for interim injunction before the trial court, if they so choose,” the High Court said.

“The trial court is directed to finally decide the injunction within 30 days from today, after hearing both the sides,” it said adding that if any of the parties felt aggrieved by the final order that may be passed by the trial court on the injunction application, it would be open to him tor her to challenge it before an appropriate forum in accordance with law.

The petitioners wanted the interim order of the trial court quashed and set aside as it was passed without issuing notices to the defendants, and claimed that the facts did not warrant an ex-parte order.