The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed the petition filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra, in which she sought to restrain BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and lawyer Jay Anant Dehadrai from posting or broadcasting any 'fake and defamatory' content against her on social media platforms. The bench led by Justice Sachin Datta stated, 'I have dismissed the injunction application'.
TMC leader Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December 2023. She was accused of receiving undue benefits from businessman Darshan Hiranandani for asking questions in Lok Sabha and sharing her parliamentary login ID and password with him. The Ethics Committee, in its report, stated that the TMC MP shared her Lok Sabha login credentials with someone else, which would be deemed 'unparliamentary conduct' and 'contempt of the House'.
What was Mahua Moitra's request in the petition?
The expelled TMC leader demanded from the Delhi High Court to permanently restrain media organizations, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, and Supreme Court advocate Jay Anant Dehadrai from publishing and broadcasting designed defamatory, false, and malicious statements that harm her reputation. She also sought a directive from the High Court for Dehadrai to retract a letter he wrote to Dubey dated October 14, 2023.
In an interim application, Mahua Moitra urged the High Court to direct Nishikant Dubey and Jay Anant Dehadrai to remove the allegedly defamatory content that had been posted against her on social media. Moitra's lawyer told the court, 'Mahua Moitra received some gifts from Darshan Hiranandani as they are friends and these gifts were not in exchange for asking questions in Parliament. The claim that Mahua's login credentials were given to Hiranandani in exchange for some benefit is entirely libelous. Dehadrai and Dubey are still levying libelous charges against my client'.
What arguments did Dehadrai and Dubey present in court?
Nishikant Dubey, through his lawyer Abhimanyu Bhandari, told the Delhi Court that the petitioner (Mahua Moitra) herself had admitted in the media to sharing her parliamentary login ID and password with Darshan Hiranandani. Senior advocate Sanjay Ghose, on behalf of Jay Anant Dehadrai, informed the Delhi High Court that reality was reflected in their letter dated October 14, as the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee had also clearly and indubitably established in its report that Mahua Moitra had accepted illegal benefits from Darshan Hiranandani. TMC MP Mahua from Krishnanagar, West Bengal had been expelled from the Lok Sabha on the 8th of December over allegations of cash for query.
