BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday reserved the verdict on a public interest litigation questioning the injunction order passed by a city civil and sessions court restraining media from reporting defamatory statements with regard to Bengaluru South Constituency BJP candidate LS Tejasvi Surya.
Hearing the petition filed by New Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms, represented by Chairman Trilochan Sastry, against the injunction order dated March 29, 2019 after a business woman tweeted against him, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice PS Dinesh Kumar reserved the verdict.
When court sought to know the impact of impugned order, the counsel of petitioner argued that the impugned order directly interfere with conducting elections. It will also have an impact on people who are suffering because lack of flow of information, he argued.
Referring to a judgement of Supreme Court, he argued that “we are not arguing to allow someone to issue defamatory statements but to ask the Election Commission of India (ECI) to implement the rules. When the remedy is available by way of damage, injunction order cannot be passed”, he argued.