The Delhi High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on a man who wanted a gag order against two newspapers while claiming that their reports mentioning his name could adversely impact the cases filed by him in different fora, LiveLaw reported.

Justice Subramonium Prasad dismissed the plea moved by Ajay Kumar seeking direction to the Hindustan Times and Dainik Jagran to conceal his identity while circulating any news or article on him. The court reportedly junked the plea while observing that it is nothing but abuse of the process of law.

The court reportedly said that just because a publication pertains to a court proceeding, it cannot be concluded that it either tends to impair judicial impartiality or affects the court’s ability to determine the true facts.

“One has to carefully see the nature of the publication and find out as to the content of the publication will cause prejudice to the trial of a case or not. Prejudice by a publication can be of two categories. one which tends to impair the courts impartiality and the other which prejudices the court’s ability to determine true facts,” the court said, according to LiveLaw.

The court, according to the report, noted that Kumar was seeking a gag order against the newspapers without bringing on record all the relevant facts and that the newspaper cuttings presented by him did not indicate that they are linked to any consumer complaint in which he is involved.

Kumar claimed that there was a threat to his property from a “land mafia” police officer against whom his mother had filed a writ petition last year. He claimed that the officer had briefed the two papers about a pending consumer dispute to jeopardise his mother’s case.

“The petitioner has not revealed the nature of the writ petition which has been filed by his mother and also the prayers sought for in the said writ petition. The petitioner has also not filed anything relating to the pending consumer case. The contents of the newspaper does not, in the opinion of this court, indicate any kind of apprehension or danger or prejudice that can be caused to the petitioner or his mother,” the court said, according to the report.

This report was published with AI assistance.