Payal Ghosh Tenders Unconditional Apology To Richa Chadha For Defamatory Remarks; Bombay HC Records Settlement

As a result of the same, the suit against Ghosh - which had sought damages to the tune of Rupees 1.1 crore - has ended but it continues against the other two parties.

At the outset, Advocate Saveena Bedi Sachar appearing on behalf of Richa Chadha and Advocate Nitin Satpute for Payal Ghosh informed Justice AK Menon that consent terms have been finalised and Ghosh withdraws the statement she has made against the plaintiff and tenders unconditional apology.

The undertaking states-

"The Defendant no.1 hereby withdraws her statements and defamatory posts pertaining to the plaintiff as mentioned vide the current interim application and suit, including without limitation her statements and defamatory posts vide the interview to the plaint and unconditionally apologises to the plaintiff.

Defendant No.1 undertakes to delete all her above statements and defamatory posts against the plaintiff on Twitter and other media where the Defendant No.1 has published the same and further also undertakes not to state, make, publish and/or republish any defamatory, insulting, humiliating statements against the plaintiff at any time in perpetuity, related to the subject matter of the present interim application in any manner and/or for any purpose."

On behalf of the plaintiff, Senior Advocate Dr.Virendra Tulzapurkar submitted that the Court should direct both Kamaal R Khan and ABN Telugu to withdraw the content put out by them based Payal Ghosh's remarks against the plaintiff.

When the bench asked ABN Telugu's counsel Advocate Nikhil Mishra about his client's response, he informed the Court that the channel will act as per Court's injunction

On the other hand, Justice Menon enquired from Kamaal R Khan's counsel Advocate Manoj Gadkari about his stand to which he responded that his client is willing to make a public statement to the effect that he will not make any public comments against Richa Chadha on the basis of defamatory remarks.

Are you contesting or not? Justice Menon asked.

After Advocate Gadkari informed the bench that his client intends to contest the suit, Court granted him four weeks to file a reply. Thus, the suit will continue against ABN Telugu and Kamaal R Khan.