Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Defamation PDF
Defamation PDF
Defamation PDF
Home Nation
Kejriwal vs Jaitley
Earlier this year, Arvind Kejriwal alleged that finance minister Arun Jaitley was involved in financial
irregularities dating back to the time when the latter was the president of the Delhi and District
Cricket Association (DDCA). In response, Jaitley filed a civil defamation case against Kejriwal and
sought Rs 10 crore as compensation.
Here is where things got a little interesting. During court proceedings, Kejriwal’s lawyer Ram
Jethmalani allegedly called Jaitley a ‘crook’ and ‘guilty of crimes and cookery'. When Jethmalani was
questioned by the court, he clarified that Kejriwal had directed him to say so. The veteran lawyer has
since been sacked by Kejriwal.
Jaitley was not impressed with defamation within a defamation case. He filed another civil
defamation suit against Kejriwal, demanding another Rs 10 crore as damages.
But it's another instance of how defamation suits work in this country. They don't come to conclusion
quickly and each hearing provides the accused an opportunity to air the damaging content yet again.
1/2
10/10/2017
Adanis vs EPW
On June 19, 2017, The Wire re-published an article from the Economic and Political Weekly, written
by the latter publication's editor Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. The story was about how the Adani
group's business practices. Two weeks later, the Adani group slapped a multi-crore defamation case
notice against EPW publisher and Guha Thakurta. The fallout of the multi-crore defamation suit was
that the publication asked Thakurta to pull down the article. Thakurta refused and resigned.
Ambani vs Ambani
The divide between the Ambani brothers — Mukesh and Anil — intensified when in 2008 Anil filed a
defamation suit for Rs 10,000 crore against big brother Mukesh for remarks he made against him in
an interview with The New York Times. The NYT had quoted Mukesh Ambani as saying that Anil had
a network of lobbyists and spies. The newspaper had said, “What most distinguishes Reliance from
its rivals is what Ambani's friends and associates describe as his (Anil’s) ‘intelligence agency´ a
network of lobbyists and spies in New Delhi who they say collect data about the vulnerabilities of the
powerful, about the minutiae of bureaucrats’ schedules, about the activities of their competitor.”
However, two years later, after their mother Kokilaben had brokered a truce between her two sons,
Anil withdrew the defamation case against Mukesh in the Bombay High Court. Also, as part of the
truce, the two brothers decided to scrap a non-compete agreement between their two groups,
allowing more flexibility to utilise resources more efficiently.
===
What is defamation?
Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code state that, "Whoever, by words either spoken or
intended to be read, or by signs or by visible representations, makes or publishes any imputation
concerning any person intending to harm, or knowing or having reason to believe that such
imputation will harm, the reputation of such person, is said, except in the cases hereinafter
expected, to defame that person.”
The punishment for defamation is a simple imprisonment for up to two years or with fine or with both.
TAGS India Defamation Jay Shah Amit Shah BJP Jay Shah The Wire
2/2