‘The Wire’ To Move SC Against The Gag Order On Jay Shah Article

‘The Wire’ has decided to move the Supreme Court against the gag order issued against publishing the article about BJP President Amit Shah’s son  Jay Amit Bhai Shah.

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday restored the gag order on online news portal The Wire barring it from reporting any article on Jay Amit Bhai Shah pending the defamation suit filed by him against the portal.

Justice Paresh Upadhyay restored the gag order issued by a trial court on October 12.

The high court, in doing so, did away with the order passed by 4th Additional Senior Civil Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural), on December 23, 2017, by which the publication was restrained only from publishing any statement in the manner ‘since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister…’

The high court’s order comes on an appeal moved by Jay Amitbhai Shah against this very order.

While allowing the appeal, the high court said, “The impugned order passed by the Trial Court i.e. 4th Additional Senior Civil Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural) dated 23.12.2017, below Application Exh.5 in Special Civil Suit No. 442 of 2017 is modified to the extent that, from the operative part of the said order, the following words / line shall be deleted. ‘...narrating the lines or words, in the manner of “since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister / following the election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister”...’

“The effect of the deletion of the above words / line from the operative part of the impugned order dated 23.12.2017 would be that, the initial restrain order dated 12.10.2017 passed by the Trial Court on Application Exh.5, which has continued to operate uptil now, shall continue to hold the field, during the pendency of the suit,” it ordered.

It is to be noted that the case has its origin from an investigative article published by The Wire on October 8, 2017 showing how the revenue of Jay Shah’s company had grown 1,600 times after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.

Jay Shah filed a Rs 100-crore defamation suit against the publication and its journalist.

On October 12, an Ahmedabad court passed the gag order ex-parte.

The Wire’s journalist made an appeal and the order was modified to the extent that the injunction would pertain to only the line “since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister / following the election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister”.