Gujarat HC refuses to quash proceedings against The Wire in Jay Shah defamation plaint

In an order passed yesterday, the Gujarat High Court dismissed an application filed by The Wire and its editors seeking to quash the defamation proceedings instituted by Jay Shah against the publication..Justice JB Pardiwala, in his 107-page order, deemed it unfit to interfere with the matter at this stage, noting that the defendants would have the opportunity to make their case before the trial court..By way of background, The Wire had published an article on October 8 last year alleging impropriety in the dealings of Jay Shah, son of BJP President Amit Shah. In reaction to the article, the younger Shah filed a defamation suit of Rs. 100 crore against the publication and its journalists..Shah had filed a complaint in the Additional Chief Metropolitan Court in Ahmedabad on October 9, and thereafter, on October 24, the court passed an order taking cognizance of the complaint for offences under Section 500 read with Section 114 of the Indian Penal Code. This, after a Magisterial Inquiry was undertaken to ascertain whether there was a prima facie case of defamation..Subsequently, The Wire had filed an application in the Gujarat High Court to quash the above-mentioned order, as well as the complaint lodged by Shah..Appearing for The Wire and its editors, Senior Advocate Mihir Joshi argued that the offence of defamation under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code was not proved in this case. He relied on the first exception to Section 499, which states truth is a defence to a defamatory statement, if it is made for the public good. In this regard, it was averred that the entire article is based on the public record available with the office of the Registrar of Companies..He also brought to light, explanation 4 to the provision, stating that the article in question has, in no manner, lowered the moral character of the complainant..After considering the arguments made by Joshi, as well as those made by Senior Advocate SV Raju appearing for Jay Shah, Justice Pardiwala noted,.“Thus, what becomes critical therefore is balance: The fine equilibrium required between protecting the freedom of speech, fair comment and criticism (including investigative journalism and whistleblower action) on the one hand and transgression into malicious defamation of a person for oblique or political purposes on the other.”.Having gone through a number of Supreme Court decisions on the topic, the Court concluded,.“I have reached to the conclusion that it would not be appropriate for this Court to quash the complaint at the threshold. I must give an opportunity to the complainant to establish his case. At the same time, the accused persons will also have a right to defend themselves by placing reliance on explanation 4 of section 499 IPC as well as the First exception of section 499 IPC….…I have thought fit not to exercise my discretion in favour of the founding editors because there are specific and clear allegations in the complaint that they are responsible for the defamatory matter and had the personal knowledge about the contents of the defamatory matter. There is also an averment in the complaint that all the accused had the malafide intention to harm or the knowledge or reason to believe that the imputation will harm the reputation of the complainant.”.Before signing off, the Court made it clear that the observations made in this order would not have a bearing on the final outcome of the case..“Let me make myself very clear that any observations, touching the merits of the case are purely for the purpose of deciding the question whether the complaint and the order of the process should be quashed at this stage and none of the observations made by this Court on the merits if any be construed as an expression and the final opinion in the main matter.”.The Wire had scored a small victory back in December, when a civil court at Mirzapur, Ahmedabad vacated the ex parte interim injunction passed on October 12, preventing it from publishing anything against Shah..Read the order: