New Delhi: The Gujarat High Court today will give its order on the gag order issued by the lower court against the famous Delhi based online news portal –The Wire for publishing an article on Jay Shah’s company’s turnover which rose to 16,000 times over the past one year since NDA has come into power.
After BJP president Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah secured the gag order which was an ex parte injunction order against the news portal, preventing the new website from publishing any content “directly or indirectly” about Jay Shah.
The news portal Wire had then approached the Gujarat High court which has decided to announce the judgment on 20 November.
Jay Shah’s counsel S V Raju while arguing the defamation case before Justice J B Pardiwala of Gujarat High Court indicating to Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Vadra said people have a “certain perception” and “if you bring me in (the) company of crooks, it would amount to defamation”.
“I am not saying Vadra is a crook but if you put me in the list, it is defamatory,” said S V Raju during the hearing of quash petition by Wire in the criminal defamation case.
Jay Shah’s counsel mentioned Vadra after the Wire’s counsel, Mihir Joshi, said that particular article on Jay shah’s company’s turnover had previously exposed Vadra’s illegal land dealings.
Wire’s counsel Joshi had argued in the court that the article “per se is not defamatory, and all the facts are based on public documents,” adding that “none of the facts written in the articles have been denied.”
He further stated that such articles are a part of investigative journalism, which would put a public person on debate and that filing a Rs.100 crore defamation suit against the journalists is against the freedom of press and people’s right to information.
Jay Shah had reportedly filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against the Wire after it published an article “The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah” which claimed his company’s assets have skyrocketed since 2014 .
However, the Wire states that it has not published any wrong information about the company’s profit and that the article was based on the company’s annual filings which are available with the Registrar of Companies.