BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday quashed the ex-parte ad-interim injunction order passed by a city sessions court restraining a Dakshina Kannada-based digital media house from reporting defamatory news linking the family members of Harshendra Kumar D and the Dharmasthala temple administration to the ongoing investigation into the alleged mass burial case.
However, the court remitted the matter to the sessions court with a direction to consider the interlocutory applications afresh, bearing in mind the observations made in the order.
Justice M Nagaprasanna pronounced the order while partly allowing the petition filed by ‘Kudla Rampage’, which challenged the legality of the injunction order dated July 18, passed by the 10th Additional City Civil and Sessions Court in Bengaluru.
Making clear that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the civil suit pending before the sessions court and also the criminal proceedings or the veracity of the allegations and the counter allegations, the high court said all contentions, except the one considered in this petition, should remain open and the petitioner and other parties should extend their full cooperation to the sessions court in passing the necessary orders.
The petitioner was one among the 338 defendants before the sessions court, which passed the ex-parte injunction order restraining defamatory reporting against the plaintiff, his family, the temple administration and its affiliated institutions. It was also directed for the removal and de-indexing of over 8,842 web links.