NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed news portal "The Wire" to remove a defamatory article alleging complicity of Delhi chief secretary Naresh Kumar’s son Karan Chauhan in a case pertaining to the enhanced valuation of land acquired by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for Dwarka Expressway road project.
Kumar was approaching the high court against the article titled "Links of Son of Delhi Chief Secretary to Beneficiary's Family in Land Over-Valuation Case Raise Questions‟ dated November 9, saying the "malicious, false and defamatory statement" published against him has caused immense damage to his reputation and goodwill that has been built over a period of several decades.
Justice Sachin Datta took note of the contentions of the plaintiff that a "grave and irreparable damage" will be caused to him if ad-interim injunctive orders were not passed against the article.
Asking to remove the article within 48 hours, the court also directed the defendants not to post, circulate or publish any similar defamatory content against the plaintiff as set out in the impugned article.
"Undoubtedly, while freedom of speech and expression is sacrosanct, the reputation of a person earned over several decades, cannot be sacrificed at the altar of such freedom, when the impugned publication, ex-facie, contains unsubstantiated allegations and defamatory imputations, regardless of the truth," the court said in the order.
Kumar was moving a lawsuit against the news portal's article saying it contained libellous allegations and insinuations against him. All the contents of the article are false, malicious, motivated, tainted with collateral objectives, unfounded and misconceived, having been made knowingly and deliberately, calculated to harm the dignity and reputation of the plaintiff, the plea said.
It was stated in the plea that the plaintiff is a 1987 AGMUT Cadre, Indian Administrative Service Officer and that during the expansive career which extends over 36 years, he has served in various key positions in Centre, State and Union Territory of India and served the public interest at large.
A controversy erupted over the allegations against Karan Chauhan following Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had asked Vigilance Minister Atishi to conduct an inquiry into the matter.
It was alleged in the vigilance report that an MoU was signed between ILBS and the company of the chief secretary’s son on January 24, which provided “a huge scope for profiteering to the company by providing it with joint intellectual property rights for any intellectual property developed through the project and 50 per cent share of profits by both parties for any future commercialisation of work.”
However, the report when forwarded was rejected by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, saying the report was “prejudiced” and “devoid of merit”.