Delhi High Court reserves verdict on Bloomberg plea against order to take down story on Zee

The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its judgement on the plea filed by news platform Bloomberg against a trial court order directing it to take down the report alleging that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had found US $241 million accounting irregularity at Zee Entertainment [Bloomberg Television Production Services India Private Limited & Ors v Zee Entertainment Enterprise Limited]..Justice Shalinder Kaur asked the parties to file their written submissions in the matter and reserved the order. .Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar appeared for Bloomberg and told the Court that the order passed by the trial court was without any reason or prima facie finding. "This is the most amazing order. No prima facie case made, balance of convenience, irreparable loss or hardship," he said. Nayar said that Bloomberg is a reputed channel and a media company and the trial court judge did not even hear the news platform before publishing the order. Meanwhile, advocate Vijay Aggarwal appeared for Zee and contended that that there is nothing on record to show that the allegations made by Bloomberg were true. "They don't have a case on facts. If there is any in public record, dismiss my suit right now... Just because they are a company of international repute does not mean they can defame an Indian company," he argued. .Bloomberg moved the Delhi High Court against the order directing it to remove an article alleging that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) found accounting irregularities of nearly US $240 million at Zee Entertainment.The order was passed ex parte by Additional District Judge (ADJ) Harjyot Singh Bhalla of the Saket Courts. The article titled India Regulator Uncovers $241 Million Accounting Issue at Zee was published by Bloomberg on February 21, 2024.The story said that SEBI had “found a hole of more than $240 million in the accounts of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd”.As per the story, the market regulator had found that more than $241 million was missing from the Zee Entertainment's accounts with no proper transaction history shown for the amount..Zee then filed a defamation suit before a Delhi district court against Bloomberg and its journalists Anto Antony, Saikat Das and Preeti Singh.It told the district court that the article was defamatory and that SEBI has not rendered any finding against Zee. It was argued that the article claims that SEBI has unearthed large financial bungling when no such finding has been disclosed.Zee contended that an interim order dated June 12, 2023 and confirmatory order dated August 14, 2023 was passed by SEBI against one individual promoter and one key managerial personnel (KMP), relieving them from holding any key managerial position in any listed companies or their subsidiaries.However, Zee was not issued any notice by the SEBI in the said proceedings, it was pointed out.The district judge on March 1 passed an ex parte order directing Bloomberg to take down the news report leading to the present plea before the High Court. .Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar argued the case for Bloomberg. Kochhar & Co represented the media company through Rohit Kochhar, founding member & managing partner of Kochhar & Co. The firm's partners Shiv Sapra and Samiron Borkataky also appeared in the case. They were assisted by Rajat Gava, Ikshvaaku Marwah and Sanskriti Shrimali. Advocates Vijay Aggarwal and Naman Joshi appeared for Zee.