Delhi High Court vacates injunction granted to IIPM against The Caravan’s article

On February 16, the Delhi High Court vacated an injunction order against a cover story published by The Caravan. The Rs 50 crore defamation case was filed by Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM).

Arindam Chaudhuri, IIPM’s founder, was the subject of The Caravan‘s story titled “Sweet Smell of Success: How Arindam Chaudhuri Made a Fortune Off the Aspirations—and Insecurities—of India’s Middle Classes”.

The story, authored by Siddhartha Deb, a contributing editor at The Caravan, was published on February 1, 2011, following which the case was filed in a Civil Court in Assam’s Silchar, where a preliminary injunction was granted. The order had directed The Caravan to remove the article in question from its website.

According to The Caravan, IIPM had responded to the story by filing a civil defamation lawsuit. The suit, which sought damages of Rs 50 crore, was filed not in Delhi, where both IIPM and the magazine’s publisher, the Delhi Press, are based, but 2,200 kilometres away in Silchar, Assam, 300 kilometres from Dispur, the state capital.

IIPM filed the case in the Court of Civil Judge in Silchar through one Kishorendu Gupta, who was plaintiff number one. IIPM was the second plaintiff.

A transfer petition filed in the Supreme Court requesting that the case be shifted to the Delhi High Court was granted, and the case came up before the bench of Justice Manmohan.

Bar and Bench reported that Chaudhuri’s lawyer, Nishit Kush, had contended that the magazine had carried a morphed image of Chaudhuri, showing him as a magician/soothsayer with the intent to portray him as a trickster. The report also stated that derogatory comments were made against Chaudhuri without any basis and with an intent to create a negative image amongst the general public.

Representing The Caravan, Advocate Amit Gupta invoked the defence of truthfulness and submitted that none of the impugned statements were made recklessly or without proper research.

Justice Manmohan referred to the judgment delivered in the case of Shashi Tharoor v. Arnab Goswami which delved into reasonable restrictions on freedom of the press in defamation suits, and observed: “In India, the Courts have the power to pass pre-publication or pre-broadcasting injunction or prior restraint order in sub judice matters provided the two-pronged test of necessity and proportionality are satisfied and reasonable alternative methods or measures are not sufficient to prevent the said risk.”

The Court further observed that if the article in question was read in its entirety then it could be observed that the “impugned portions are either based on the statements made by several persons or on facts available in public domain and/or are the author’s personal opinions and conclusions based on extensive research and report.”  

The Court’s judgement has received much applaud on social media with Twitteratti, including journalists, congratulating The Caravan on its success.