Ahmedabad: On December 23, 2017, the Civil Court, Mirzapur, Ahmedabad vacated the ex parte ad interim injunction imposed on The Wire.
According to an article published in The Wire, Previously, on October 12, 2017, the Court had originally granted the injunction barring The Wire, its editors and the author of the story, ‘The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah’ from “using and publishing or printing in any electronic, print, digital or any other media, or broadcast, telecast, print and publish in any manner including by way of interview, holding Tv talks, debate and debates, news items, programs in any language on the basis of the article published in ‘THE WIRE ‘ (dated 8/10/2010) (sic) either directly or indirectly on the subject matter with respect to the plaintiff in any manner whatsoever.”
This injunction has been challenged by The Wire on the grounds that it represented an unconstitutional restriction on the Press freedom and also told that the article was based on entirely on public records and information provided by Jay Shah.
The Judge gave the order that “The plaintiff in the suit has neither denied or questioned the facts contained in the reports obtained through the Registrar of Companies and has also not objected to the data that has been published in the said article. It is also not the case of the plaintiff that the data obtained is a misleading one or the same is misrepresented by the defendants thereby depicting a false picture of defendant’s company”.
The Court also ruled that its injunction is now restricted only to the “Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister/elected as Prime Minister”. In addition, lawyers of Jay Shah said that they wanted no further discussion of its original story. However, the civil court has not granted any such future injunction on the subject matter either.
The decision of the Civil Court in favour of The Wire reflects The Wire’s fundamental stand on its article ‘The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah’.
It also reflects its legitimate exercise of freedom of expression in the interest of the public.