The US-based Entrepreneur magazine has informed the Delhi High Court that it will remove all its publications which relates to an article or the cover story which contains the allegedly defamatory statements made by former BharatPe Managing Director Ashneer Grover against the fintech company.
However, the court observed that the article titled, Fraud or framed? The curious case of Ashneer Grover was being published in the 2023 issue of June-July.
The said undertaking was being given by the Entrepreneur magazine before Justice Jyoti Singh on July 14 in the defamation suit filed by the BharatPe against the magazine and Grover.
The counsel appearing for magazine’s informed the court that it will not circulate the print edition of the cover story which contained certain quotes from an interview with Grover and that it will also delete or remove the interview or podcast titled as the podcast of ‘Ashneer Grover’s as well as posts related to it from the various social media handles.
The court observed that it was being undertaken that the magazine will not publish any article or story containing any content which amounts to defamation or derogation against BharatPe or its employees or shareholders in relation to its business interests.
The counsel appearing also undertook hat the magazine will publish a corrigendum in their next issue that the views which are expressed in the article in question were that of Grover and not of Entrepreneur magazine.
In the present case, the suit was moved by BharatPe seeking permanent injunction against the Entrepreneur magazine to restrain them from publishing any defamatory statements concerning its business, growth metrics, directors, officials, shareholders etc.
Further, the court in the case observed and has issued the summon to the magazine and Grover in the suit and directed the magazine to file an affidavit of undertaking with advance copy to counsel for BharatPe.
Accordingly, the court listed the matter for further consideration on November 07, 2023.
The counsels, Advocates, Amit Sibal, Senior Advocate with Anuj Berry, Sourabh Rath, Megha Janakiraman, Vibhore Yadav, Darpan Sachdeva, Vinamra Kapariha and Vinay Tripathi appeared for the petitioner.
The counsels, Advocates, Pawanjit Singh Bindra, Senior Advocate with Rahul Dhawan, Vidhesh Issar and Vaishali Singh represented the respondent.
