Amit Shah’s son’s lawyer fails to appear; Court defers defamation matter till Oct 16

Agencies

October 12, 2017

Ahmedabad, Oct 12: A metropolitan court here today adjourned the hearing of the criminal defamation case filed by BJP president Amit Shah’s son Jay against The Wire as the complainant’s advocate was not present in the court.

A lawyer for Jay Shah sought time from additional chief metropolitan magistrate S.K. Gadhvi, saying that senior advocate S.V. Raju could not be present in the court as he was busy in the high court.

The court granted the time and adjourned the hearing to October 16.

Jay Shah had filed a criminal defamation case in a metropolitan court against The Wire on Monday over a report, which claimed his firm Temple Enterprise’s turnover grew exponentially after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.

The magistrate had ordered a court inquiry in the matter under CrPC section 202 (to inquire into the case to decide whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding).

In his application, Shah prayed for “criminal action against the respondents for defaming and tarnishing the reputation of the complainant through an article, which is scandalous, frivolous, misleading, derogatory, libelous and consisting of several defamatory statements”.

The seven respondents in the case are the author of the article, Rohini Singh, founding editors of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M.K. Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and Foundation for Independent Journalism, a non-profit company that publishes The Wire.

The Wire‘s editors have described the defamation case as an attack on media freedom and said they intend to fight the matter vigorously.

The case seeks action against respondents under IPC Sections 500 (defamation), 109 (abetment), 39 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

The court will issue summonses to the respondents only after the initial inquiry establishes a case.

Shah is yet to file a civil defamation suit against the respondents. He had earlier announced that he will also file a Rs 100 crore civil defamation suit.

A political storm has erupted after the article was published.

The Congress has demanded an inquiry into the matter and ouster of Amit Shah, while the BJP called the article defamatory.

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Manipur CM is mastermind behind violence; Centre lied in Supreme Court: Kuki MLAs

News Network

November 11,2024

The Manipur Kuki MLAs have released a statement calling out Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's 'lies' in the Supreme Court. In a joint statement, the MLAs, including those from the Bharatiya Janata Party, said they had not had any meeting with the Chief Minister since May 3, 2023, nor did they intend to meet him in the future as “he was the mastermind behind the violence”.

As per the MLAs, the SG lied about state CM N Biren Singh speaking to Kuki MLAs to control the situation there, in order to halt a Supreme Court probe into the leaked tapes which allege that Singh has been complicit in the violence that broke out between Kukis and Meitis there.

"We...clarify that we have never had any meeting with Chief Minister, Shri N. Biren Singh since May 3, 2023, nor have any intention to meet him in future as he is the mastermind behind the violence and ethnic cleansing of our people from the Imphal valley, which is continuing till today, the latest being the brutal killing and burning of Mrs Zosangkim Hmar on November 7, 2024," the letter read, while condemning the recent 'barbaric' killing of the woman there, and noting the SG's assertion is 'tantamount' to misleading the top court.

“We, the undersigned ten MLAs, have come to know that during the Supreme Court hearing held on November 8, 2024, the Solicitor General of India submitted that ‘CM is meeting all Kuki MLAs and trying to bring the situation down to get peace’. In this connection, we hereby categorically state that this submission is a blatant lie and tantamount to misleading the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” the statement said.

The Supreme Court, while hearing a petition by a Kuki organisation, asked that it submit audio tapes to substantiate its claim that the Chief Minister was instrumental in inciting and organising violence in the northeastern State.

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta orally informed the court that the Chief Minister was meeting all the Kuki-Zo MLAs and that peace in the State had come at a huge cost.

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