HC notice to Sorabjee on plea by daily

The Delhi High Court today directed Attorney General Soli Sorabjee to reply to an application moved by the publishers and the management of The Asian Age seeking a stay on its earlier order restraining the daily, its editor M J Akbar and its associates from publishing or circulating any article defamatory to the senior lawyer. Hearing a suit filed by Sorabjee against Media Asia Private Limited the publishers of The Asian Age, and its editor M J Akbar, claiming Rs 10000000 compensation for causing damage to his integrity and reputation, Justice Dalveer Bhandari had passed an ex-parte restrainment order against the daily on December 16. Justice Bhandari asked Sorabjee to explain his stand on the stay application of The Asian Age within three weeks and fixed the matter for final arguments on March 22. In its stay-application, the daily regretted that Sorabjee’s feeling have been unintentionally hurt due to two articles which appeared in the paper on November 28 and December7 last year. It said the intention of the daily and its management was not at all to either malign him or the office of the attorney general. The application said that the words in the heading of the articles `Biased Soli opinion for Chhabria in Sebi matter’ and `Sorabjee favoured Kishore Chhabria sham loan fraud’ and further the expression that he was a “pliant and willing attorney general’ were used innocently in good faith while discharging the duty of journalism as a fair comment on a matter of public interest. Claiming the articles to be absolutely true in facts and substance, the daily and its management submitted that as they understand, a matter in which the attorney general was likely to be called upon to advise the government and/or a statutory authority like the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as per the law, he should have precluded from advising any private party. Particularly, when the attorney general was well aware that a show-cause notice had been issued to the privatecompany by Sebi after making the preliminary investigation, the application said adding that he was naturally aware that further probe into the matter was in progress in the Chhabria sham loan case. The application said as per the understanding of the law if the facts in the statement alleged to be defamatory were proved true, there cannot be any liability of defamation, particularly, in civil action as in the present case. Further, the language complained of in the present case has to be read in the context of the established truth and on the face of it the defamatory meaning was not the natural and obvious meaning of the said language, it said. The alleged articles were published for the public benefit and the same can not in any way be termed as malicious or otherwise for personal gains, the newspaper said. It submitted that in a matter of public interest like the present one, every one was entitled to make fair comment. “The right of fair comment is one of the fundamental rights of free speechand writing which are so dear to the freedom of press and it is of vital importance to the rule of law on which we depend for our personal freedom as enshrined in the article 19 (1) (g) of the constitution,” the application said and sought the court’s indulgence to guard the said right of freedom by way of a liberal interpretation.