Gautam Gambhir Sued Punjab Kesari Of A Defamation Case Worth Rs. 2 Crore

Gautam Gambhir, Member of Parliament and Former Indian Cricketer is seeking damages worth Rs. 2 crores from Hindi Daily Newspaper, Punjab Kesari for publishing defamatory and misleading articles against him.

Gambhir filed a defamation suit before the Delhi High Court through his advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai concerning the alleged reports targeting the cricketer publicized in the Punjab Kesari Group-owned newspaper.

Gautam Gambhir on his lawsuit sued Punjab Kesari, its correspondents Imran Khan and Amit Kumar, along with the editor Aditya Chopra for willfully scheming to destroy his public influence by misusing their voice as a journalist and publishing libelous and fake articles.

The news articles fabricate and call out Gambhir as an arrogant politician and casteist human being.

To add to the woes, one of the article headline compared Gambhir with the Hindu mythological demon ‘Bhasmasur’.

The legal dispute put forward by Gautam Gambhir against Punjab Kesari involves some news reports that read their title as follows:

Delhi’s missing MP becomes Bhasmasur for Lucknow Super Giants (Dilli ke lapata Sansad Lucknow Super Giants ke liye bane ‘Bhasmasur’);

This is the MP of a new frame of mind, please keep distance while meeting him (Ye Naye Mijaz ke Sansad hai Zara Faaslo se Mila Karo);

MP Gautam Gambhir goes missing, posters come up in streets (Sansad Gautam Gambhir Lapata, Gali-Gali Mein Lage Poster);

Adesh Gupta kept speaking, while Gautam Gambhir left (Adesh Gupta bolte reh gaye, Gautam Gambhir uth chale).

The 2 crore compensation which the East Delhi Lok Sabha Member demanded would be handed over to charitable organisations.

The lawsuit handed over by the Indian Parliamentarian to the HC is accompanied with both temporary and mandatory injunction.

The 41-year old cricket player also sought unconditional apologies from the Punjab Kesari Group to be submitted through all publications including digital versions.

Further, the mentor of the IPL franchise, Lucknow Giants, also asked the newspaper to withdraw all malicious articles published against him.

Howbeit, the single judge bench of Delhi High Court comprising of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh, on 17 May, refused to provide Gautam Gambhir with interim relief, emphasizing that a public person should be thick skinned.

Yet, it was also observed by the court that defamatory campaigns in form of news articles against the BJP Lok Sabha Member had been done intentionally to degrade his reputation, and that such publications did not befit the reputed newspaper either.

Raj Shekhar Rao, a Senior Advocate took to defending the newspaper and the persons involved, declared that the lawsuit stating defendant 2 is not the editor-in-chief of the Hindi Daily and that Punjab Kesari does not hold any legal entities.

On the other hand, Dehadrai also argued that it was non-viable that two reporters publish misleading articles in the same style to target the reputation of an innocent man, and that it supposedly done at the behest of someone else.

The collective malaise of the defendants against Gambhir could be established as no authentication of the publications were undertaken, and the plaintiff was bad-mouthed giving a false impression to the readers, his constituency and his supporters.

Rao also questioned the plaintiff that it was not just the Punjab Kesari who had falsely published news on Gautam Gambhir, yet it was the only newspaper to be sued, and that the improper articles had been on the swing for quite some time demanding that the plaintiff should have approached the court earlier.

To this, advocate Dehadrai responded that the plaintiff had already issued a legal notice to Punjab Kesari on 23 November 2022 to put an end to such derogatory news articles, but did not witness any response from their end.

Therefore, the judiciary, after hearing both sides of the case, prima facie, summoned all the main defendants involved in the case and scheduled the next date of court session to 18 October.

Proofread & Published By Naveenika Chauhan