The Delhi High Court has ordered news portal The Wire to remove an alleged defamatory article about Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar. The article had cast aspersions on Kumar in relation to the Bamnoli land acquisition case. In an interim order, Justice Sachin Datta granted an ad-interim injunction in favor of the chief secretary, directing The Wire and its reporter to take down the article and the offending tweets. The detailed order is still awaited.
The chief secretary had filed a defamation suit in response to a news article published on November 9, which claimed that his son had links to the beneficiary’s family in the land acquisition matter. The 19-acre land in question was acquired by the National Highways Authority of India in 2018 for the construction of the Dwarka Expressway.
During the court proceedings, the chief secretary’s counsel argued that the article was “pre-planned” to incite people against him and please certain individuals. On the other hand, the news portal’s counsel stated that the intention behind the article was not to defame Kumar, but to raise legitimate questions.
Prior to the court hearing, the chief secretary had sent a legal notice to The Wire and the reporter on November 13, stating that the article’s contents were misleading and defamatory.
According to reports, the price of the land in question had increased significantly from Rs 41.52 crore to Rs 353.79 crore in May. As a result, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs initiated action against South West Delhi District Magistrate Hemant Kumar for approving the enhanced compensation.
(Note: This article has been sourced from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by NDTV staff, except for the headline.)
