TMC leader Mahua Moitra to drop Media House, Social Media intermediaries as parties from defamation suit

Mahua Moitra, the Trinamool Congress leader, notified the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that the party is not requesting any sort of relief in the lawsuit against media outlets and social media intermediaries. Taking note of this, the Justice Sachin Datta bench rescheduled the matter for December 5, 2023 and asked Moitra’s attorney, Samudra Sarangi, to […]

by Sagarika Gautam - October 31, 2023, 1:00 pm

Mahua Moitra, the Trinamool Congress leader, notified the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that the party is not requesting any sort of relief in the lawsuit against media outlets and social media intermediaries. Taking note of this, the Justice Sachin Datta bench rescheduled the matter for December 5, 2023 and asked Moitra’s attorney, Samudra Sarangi, to file an amended memo of parties. Representing a media house, attorney Sidhant Kumar argued that since the plaintiff is not seeking redress against the media houses, the suit ought to be amended to reflect the allegations made against them.

Earlier on October 20, 2023, the Delhi High Court adjourned TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s defamation plea against Nishikant Dubey for October 31.
On the last date, Nishikant Dubey’s lawyer Abhimanyu Bhandari submitted that a businessman had circulated an affidavit that he had given expensive gifts to the petitioner.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankarnaryan while pushing for an ad interim injunction told the court, “She’s a public figure with standing in the society…unfortunately she was a friend with Dehradari.”

Senior Attorney Sankarnaryan, who was representing Mahua Moitra, was submitting his briefs when Adv. Jai Anant Dehradari, who was also the target of an injunction, objected to him taking the case. In person, Dehedrai informed the court that he had been contacted the previous evening by Sankaranarayanan, who had requested that he return the dog in exchange for withdrawing his CBI complaint. Sankarnaryan left the case after these suggestions.