Criminal Defamation or Corporate War? SC notice in plea by Shapoorji Pallonji against R Venkataramanan

The Supreme Court yesterday issued notice in a plea filed by Shapoorji Pallonji and Co against Bombay High Court’s order quashing the summons issued to former Managing Trustee of the Tata Trusts, Ramachandran Venkataramanan..The petition was filed against the order of the Bombay High Court which had quashed the summons issued by the lower Court against Venkataramanan in a criminal defamation case filed by Shapoorji Pallonji..The Company had filed a defamation complaint under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code against Venkataramanan after he made an allegedly defamatory statement against the Company as well as Cyrus Mistry. In May 2018, Venkataramanan in a press statement had blamed Mistry and the Company for his name featuring in an FIR by the CBI..The FIR related to the charges of criminal conspiracy between Air Asia executives and unknown public servants for procuring overseas flying rights for the carrier..Following this statement, Criminal Defamation proceedings were initiated against Venkataramanan and the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of a Bombay Court summoned him in an order passed in October 2018. Aggrieved by the same, Venkataramanan had approached the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of the summons..The Bombay High Court, finding nothing defamatory in the statement, had allowed the petition filed by Venkataramanan and quashed the summons..This led to Shapoorji Pallonji and Company to move the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court. Senior Counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Shapoorji Pallonji told the Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta that the High Court erroneously quashed the summons issued by the lower Court..“This is nothing but a corporate war,” CJI Gogoi remarked before issuing notice in the case..A battery of lawyers appeared for both the parties with Senior Counsel Mahesh Jethmalani leading the bandwagon of fifteen lawyers including Manik Dogra, Sonali Jaitley, Ravi Sharma, Rohan Jaitley and Desai Diwanji Partner Apurva Diwanji for Shapoorji Pallonji. Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Venkataramanan along with six other lawyers..[Read Order]