Supreme Court transfers proceedings in Indiabulls defamation case against Prashant Bhushan from Rohtak to Delhi

The Supreme Court today agreed to transfer the criminal defamation proceedings initiated by Indiabulls against Advocate Prashant Bhushan from Rohtak, Haryana to Delhi..The transfer petition moved by Bhushan seeking for the proceedings initiated against him by IndiaBulls was not opposed by the respondents. The Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant thus transferred the proceedings from Haryana's Rohtak to the Patiala House Court in Delhi..Criminal defamation proceedings under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code were initiated against Bhushan by one of the Directors of Indiabulls Venture Capital Management Co. Ltd. It was claimed that Bhushan had made defamatory statements regarding the functioning of Indiabulls group, its promoters, officials and directors, etc through social media plartforms such as Twitter, Facebook, among others..Bhushan's alleged statements had caused substantial damage to the reputation and goodwill of the company, it was averred..Bhushan, in his transfer petition, had submitted that the defamation proceedings against him are initiated with the intention to "harass him and to obstruct course of justice". ."The past conduct of the Indiabulls makes it manifestly clear that whenever their illegalities being perpetrated by the Indiabulls are brought out in public domain, it habitually deploys aggressive legal tactics and claims that the research reports /complaints /Petitions are motivated so as to dissuade proper scrutiny."Prashant Bhushan, in his transfer petition.Bhushan has submitted that he is a member-trustee of an organization that has filed a PIL petition before the Delhi High Court seeking a probe into certain alleged illegalities committed by the IndiaBulls Group. In this light, he claims that the action against him is a "desperate vindictive action"..Bhushan sought a transfer of these proceedings from Rohtak in Haryana to Delhi, citing difficulty on his part to participate in the proceedings regularly, owing to his advocacy work before the Delhi High Court as well as the Supreme Court of India. He added that the IndiaBulls group has its registered office in Delhi and thus contended that the proceedings should be transferred to the capital..[Read petition]