Bamnoli Land Acquisition: DHC Reserves Judgement in CS Naresh Kumar’s Plea on Removal of Defamatory Article.
(Judicial Quest News Network)
21, Nov, 2023
The Delhi High Court today reserved the judgement on the Delhi’s CS Naresh Kumar’s plea seeking to remove a report published on “The Wire” news portal claiming that Kumar’s son was one of the beneficiaries from increased compensation during land acquisition.
The plea came before Justice Sachin Datta after hearing the matter he reserved the verdict.
The Wire had uploaded a report on November 9,2023, titled ‘Links of son of Delhi Chief Secretary to Beneficiaries’ Family in Land Over-Valuation Case Raise Questions’ in this report it is alleged that Chauhan and a family that received increased compensation for a 19-Acre-land in Delhi’s Bamnoli Village, acquired by NHAI for Dwarka Expressway.
Earlier, a complaint was made to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal regarding the alleged corruption involving Chief Secretary’s son’s company by Rs315 crore.
Recently, The Delhi High Court nullified an award of over 300 crores issued by District Magistrate Hemanth Kumar, who was suspended from his position, in a matter of compensation.
A Legal Notice dated 13.11.2023 was issued by email on behalf of
the Plaintiff requesting the Defendant Nos. 1 and 2 to stop
disseminating and spreading such false allegations. No reply has been received till date by the Plaintiff, and none of the requisitions
made in the Legal Notice dated 13.11.2023 have been complied with
by the Defendants.
As such, the malicious statements and publications continue to
remain in the public domain and are accessible by all members of
society. Furthermore, link of the said Defamatory Article, along with
other similar defamatory allegations are being shared and displayed
on the web-portal of Defendant No. 3 (Twitter), and on the search
engine of the Defendant No. 4 (Google) by various websites/ web
portals.
During the hearing, senior Advocate Maninder Sigh, who appeared foe CS Naresh Kumar said the Article was “pre-planned “in order to “activate” people against him and to “please some people”.
The Counsel for the news portal Sarim Naveed said that the intention behind the article, which only raised a few questions, was not to defame Kumar in any manner.
