Delhi HC Dismisses TMC Leader Mahua Moitra’s Interim Plea against Defamatory Content

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed the interim plea of TMC Leader Mahua Moitra, which sought to restrain BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai from posting or circulating any “fake and defamatory” content against her.

A single bench of Justice Sachin Datta stated, “I have dismissed the injunction application”.

The high court, after hearing the counsel for Moitra, Dubey, and Dehadrai, had reserved its order on the interim application on December 20, 2023.

In her plea filed in October last year, the expelled Lok Sabha member from Krishnanagar in West Bengal sought a permanent injunction against Dubey, Dehadrai, social media platforms X, search engine Google, YouTube, and 15 media houses from making, publishing, or circulating defamatory, false, and malicious statements against her. She also sought damages.

Later, Moitra removed all media houses and social media intermediaries from the memo of parties and maintained her case only against Dubey and Dehadrai.

Dubey had accused the TMC Leader of accepting bribes from businessman and Hiranandani Group CEO Darshan Hiranandani for asking questions in Parliament. Referring to a letter received from advocate Dehadrai, Dubey claimed “irrefutable” evidence of bribes allegedly paid to the TMC leader by the businessman.

In a letter to the Lok Sabha speaker, Dubey asserted that 50 of the 61 questions she asked in the Lok Sabha were focused on the Adani Group, the business conglomerate which the former TMC MP has frequently accused of malpractices, especially after it faced criticism in a report by short seller Hindenburg Research.

Following these allegations, the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee recommended Moitra’s removal from the lower house, resulting in her expulsion on December 8, 2023.