The Bombay High Court on Monday, November 2, refused to grant ad-interim relief to The Indian Express in its defamation suit against senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani over two posts on X, declining for now to order him to take the posts down.

Source: Bar and Bench

Justice Arif Doctor said the takedown plea could not be decided at the ad-interim stage. “In my view, since this would entail a detailed hearing, which would require the court to go into pleas of justification, etc., it would not be appropriate at this stage to consider the same. I will consider this when I hear this interim application for detail on reopening,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench and LawChakra.

The court instead recorded an undertaking by Jethmalani that he would not retweet the two posts flagged by the newspaper. “The defendant (Jethmalani) would not be retweeting the two allegedly offending tweets. In my view, this would be sufficient at the ad-interim stage,” the court said. The interim application was listed for further hearing on November 27.

According to the suit, as reported by both outlets, the two posts accused The Indian Express of political bias in favour of the Congress party and of compromising its editorial independence, criticised its reporting on the Election Commission of India, and alleged financial links with the Congress, citing election expenditure filings that showed advertisement payments by the party during state assembly polls. These are the newspaper's allegations as pleaded in the suit; Jethmalani defends the posts as fair comment, and none of the claims has been tested by the court, which expressed no view on whether the posts are defamatory.

Senior advocate Dinyar Madon, appearing for The Indian Express, pressed for immediate removal, emphasising that digital content does not fade like physical print. The judge concluded that the request would still require a detailed hearing before any relief could be granted.