Factually correct report cannot be termed defamatory

The Delhi High Court has quashed the defamation case against journalist Nilanjana Bhowmick and maintained that factually correct statements cannot be termed defamatory. The journalist, then bureau chief of Time magazine, had published an article entitled ““Accountability of India’s Nonprofits under Scrutiny,” on 14.12.2010.

The complainant, Ravi Nair, who is the head of human rights NGO the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC), took objection to a passage in the report wherein it was stated that India’s federal investigation agency is currently looking into money-laundering and fund-misappropriation charges against one of the country’s most prominent human-rights activists Ravi Nair. Nair and his NGO, the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre, were indicated by the European anti fraud agency in October of last year, though Nair has denied all wrongdoing…”

In the judgement, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that the “manner in which a Journalist or an Article Writer presents the facts, is his skill of writing, but when the reported matter is factually correct, then it cannot be termed as an act of defamation by the Complainant.” The judgement added that “the two lines written against the NGO of the Complainant or for the complainant were per se defamatory when in fact it only stated a fact which may be non-palatable to the Complainant.”

Nair had filed a defamation case against Bhowmick four years after the publication of the report and summons were issued to her by the trial court in 2014 and 2018. In 2021, Bhowmick filed a petition before the Delhi High Court to quash the case. The court’s order was delivered on November 17.

Welcoming the order, Bhowmick told Free Speech Collective that it set important precedents. “The case caused untold harassment for me. Criminal defamation has become a weapon to silence journalists especially women journalists or women in general,” she said.