Bollywood Versus Republic TV & Times Now: Delhi High Court Extends Interim Order Against Media Channels

The Delhi High Court today extended its interim order until May 25, asking media houses AGR Outlier Media Pvt Ltd, Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd, and others to ensure that no defamatory content will be uploaded on their social media platforms or displayed on their channels defaming the Hindi film industry or infringing the right to privacy of persons associated with it.

The order was passed in a civil suit filed by various production houses and associations of the Hindi film industry seeking to restrain journalists Arnab Goswami, Pradeep Bhandari of Republic TV, Navika Kumar, Rahul Shivshankar of Times Now and several unknown defendants and social media platforms from publishing what they have termed as "irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood members".

The suit also sought to restrain them from conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right to privacy of persons associated with Bollywood and to ensure that the channels comply with the Program Code laid down under the Cable TV (Regulation) Act, 1994.

The plaintiffs included the production houses of Bollywood biggies Aamir Khan, Sharukh Khan, Salmaan Khan, Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor and major production houses such as Yashraj Films, Dharma Productions, Nadiadwala, Excel, Vidhu Vinod Chopra films, Vishal Bharadwaj, Reliance Big etc.

While the Bollywood camp has been represented by Sr. Adv. Rajiv Nayyar, who has earlier said that they were amenable to closing the suit if the media houses were agreeable to the court's earlier order that they would ensure that no defamatory content is uploaded on the social media platforms administered by them or is displayed/broadcast on their respective news channels, the white flag was turned down by Sr. Adv. Sandeep Sethi, representing the Bennett Coleman Group, who said they were not agreeable to the suggestion and were challenging the maintainability of the suit on the ground that none of the associations or production houses that had filed the suit had infact been defamed.