Delhi High Court Restrains Former Hockey India Coach From Publishing Info Related To Medical Condition Of Woman Player

After a single bench last week refused to stay the release of a book authored by Sjoerd Marijne - the former coach of Indian Hockey Team, a division bench of the Delhi High Court Monday restrained the author and HarperCollins Publishers India Private Limited from publishing any material relating to medical condition of Indian Hockey player Gurjit Kaur.

The Book "Will Power: The Inside Story of the Incredible Turnaround in Indian Women's Hockey" is scheduled to be released on September 21

A division bench comprising of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma was dealing with an appeal against a single judge order refusing to stay release of the book, observing there cannot be any confidentiality or privacy with regard to the medical condition of a sports personality.

Gurjit Kaur, a field hockey player, had approached the single judge with a suit seeking a permanent and mandatory injunction as well as damages against the book's publisher HarperCollins Publishers India Private Limited and its author Sjoerd Marijne. Kaur's case was that Marijne in the book has disclosed certain confidential information that was shared by her with him in confidence when he was the coach of the Indian Hockey team.

In appeal, the Bench took note of the 'Hockey India/Hockey India League Code of Conduct and Sanctions', saying that the same clearly and unequivocally required Marijne to not disclose information entrusted to him in confidence for personal gain or benefit or to damage the reputation of any person.

The Court also observed that there can be no quarrel with the decision of the Supreme Court that the right to protection of data such as medial information is one which falls within the domain of "reasonable expectation paradigm."

The matter will now be heard on December 7.

The Single Judge, on September 15, refused to pass an ad interim order saying Kaur had not denied that she suffered from medical condition.

"There cannot be any confidentiality or privacy with regard to a medical condition of a sports personality. On a regular basis, there are news reports about injuries and medical conditions of sports personalities. Reference may be made to compilation of such articles handed over by the counsel for the defendant in Court," said the court. 

The Single Judge further said that if Kaur has been playing with the medical condition for many years, the same cannot remain confidential.

"The manuscript of the Book reveals that the Plaintiff told all other team mates of this medical condition and they all rallied around her. There are laudatory references to the plaintiff in the manuscript of the Book that despite the medical condition of the plaintiff, she has achieved success in the international field," the Court added.

Observing that no prejudice can be caused to Kaur by the publication of the book, the court had said balance of convenience requires that "no ad interim order is passed staying the release of the Book."

The book's publisher before last week before the single bench submitted that there was nothing confidential about Kaur's medical condition as it was known to all other team members as well. Advocate Swathi Sukumar, who represented HarperCollins, argued that being a public figure and a sports personality, Kaur cannot have right to privacy with regard her to her medical condition.

Title: GURJIT KAUR v. HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED & ANR.