Guwahati: A Delhi court on Thursday set aside the ex parte injunction that had restrained journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das, and Ayush Joshi from publishing allegedly defamatory material about Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL).
District Judge Ashish Aggarwal of the Rohini Court said the September 6 order was “unsustainable” as it was passed without giving the journalists an opportunity to be heard.
“The senior civil judge ought to have granted that opportunity before passing an order which had the impact of prima facie declaring the articles as defamatory and directing their removal,” he observed.
The original injunction, issued by Special Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh, had restrained nine journalists, activists, and entities from publishing or circulating “unverified, unsubstantiated and ex facie defamatory” reports about AEL.
It also directed removal of such content within five days and allowed the company to identify additional online material it considered defamatory, requiring platforms to act within 36 hours.
The injunction was sought in a declaration suit filed by AEL, which alleged that “coordinated defamatory” content had been published to tarnish its reputation and disrupt global business operations.
Appearing for the four journalists, advocate Vrinda Grover argued that the September 6 order contained no judicial finding on whether the publications were defamatory and merely reproduced the plaintiff’s averments. She also highlighted that most of the contested publications had been in the public domain since June 2024, questioning the urgency of the ex parte relief.
“The company chose a ‘declaration suit’ rather than a ‘defamation suit’ to evade the stricter standards of proof ordinarily required in defamation proceedings. In a defamation case, truth and fair comment could justify our reporting,” Grover said.
On behalf of AEL, advocates Vijay Aggarwal and senior advocate Jagdeep Sharma contended that the journalists were engaged in a malicious campaign and that the company’s reputation was being unfairly maligned. “All of them like writing against me… it is a completely malicious targeting,” Aggarwal said. Sharma added, “Businessmen like Adani or Ambani do not come up overnight. They are building the nation.”
The court noted that the veracity of the publications could not be determined at this stage and said whether the defendants can prove the truth of their articles “would be a subject matter of trial.” The ruling applied only to the four journalists before the court and did not cover the separate appeal filed by senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, which remains under consideration.
Earlier, on September 16, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, citing the September 6 order, had directed several news outlets and independent journalists—including Newslaundry, The Wire, HW News, Ravish Kumar, Ajit Anjum, Thakurta, Dhruv Rathee, and satirist Akash Banerjee—to remove allegedly defamatory content about AEL. Meta and Google were also notified as intermediaries under the IT Rules, 2021.
The Editors Guild of India said the gag order was “deeply concerning,” warning that it could chill legitimate reporting and undermine the right to freedom of speech. The body urged the judiciary to ensure that defamation claims are addressed through due process, not one-sided injunctions.