Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai, India Today's Aroon Purie Agree To Explore Possibility Of Mediation Over Defamation Dispute

Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai and Chairman of India Today Group Aroon Purie on Tuesday agreed before the Delhi High Court to explore the possibility of arriving at an amicable settlement over a criminal defamation case filed by the senior lawyer. 

“After hearing the submissions of the petitioner (Purie) and complainant (Rai), the parties have agreed to explore the possibility of arriving at an amicable resolution,” Justice Anish Dayal noted.

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, who was present in the court, at request, consented to be a mediator in the matter.

“In the meantime, if at all the parties reach a settlement, they shall be at liberty to file an application before this court,” the court said.

The defamation case was filed by Rai being aggrieved by news articles published on the website of AajTak news channel claiming that Rai was the nephew of conman Sanjay Rai Sherpuria.

The article also claimed that notice was issued to Rai the Special Task Forces for questioning and that he was the director in various companies owned by Sanjay Sherpuria.

On July 26, the trial court had summoned Aroon Purie (Chairman of India Today Group), Kallie Purie (Vice Chairman of India Today Group), Supriya Prasad (Managing Editor of Tak Channels), Milind Khandekar (Managing Editor) and India Today in the case.

The order was challenged by Aroon Purie, Kallie Purie and TV Today Network Limited -the parent company which owns India Today news channel, by way of two petitions which were heard by Justice Dayal today.

Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar represented Purie whereas Rai appeared in person.

While suggesting the parties to explore the possibility of settling the dispute by mediation, the court orally remarked:

“At best, see if that (settlement) is possible…. I am not commenting about anything. This is just an opportunity. No harm will be caused to anyone. Just sit down and let the wounds be healed.”

To this, even though Rai agreed to explore the possibility of mediation, he insisted that Purie and the news channel must apologise to him for the reportage.

Justice Dayal then told Nayar that the news channel must have a quick response system in case of any misreporting.

“If there is some misreporting, then you must have some quick redressal system. Issues like media issues and news move very fast and the damage can be very quick. You have to have a very quick response system,” the judge remarked.

He further said: “You expect quick response system from the police force, media should also be subjected to same.“

The matter will now be heard in November.

It was Rai's case that the news articles were published by the news channel without verifying the details. He alleged that his photograph was published in the articles which left no scope for confusion regarding his identity.

Pursuant to a legal notice sent by Rai, Purie and other officials of the news channel removed the link on which the articles were published.

Title: MR AROON PURIE & ANR. v. STATE NCT OF DELHI & ANR.