Bombay High Court directs Mumbai newspaper to remove ‘defamatory’ content about Indian Express Group

This report was updated on June 13, 2023.

The Bombay High Court last week directed a Mumbai newspaper to remove two news reports that were “prima facie defamatory” towards the Indian Express Group. Sprouts newspaper and its editor Unmesh Gujarathi were told to take down both reports from the “page, cache and archives” of their websites and social media.

In 2022, Indian Express Group had sent a Rs 100 crore defamation notice to Sprouts and Gujarathi for news reports insinuating that then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis purportedly distributed Diwali vouchers to a group of journalists. 

The defamation notice said these allegations had harmed and defamed Loksatta editor Girish Kuber. Loksatta is a Marathi newspaper owned by the Indian Express Group. 

The notice asked Gujarathi to withdraw the report from Sprouts’s website and social media platforms. It also demanded an “unconditional apology” and warned of moving “civil and criminal proceedings”.

The Bombay High Court on June 5 said the court was granting ad-interim relief because the plaintiffs would otherwise “continue to suffer grave and irreparable loss”. 

The matter will be heard next on July 12.