Delhi Court Reserves Verdict on Gag Order Against Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in Adani Case

A Delhi district court has reserved its verdict against the gag order restraining journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta from publishing defamatory stories against Adani Enterprise Limited (AEL).

After hearing both sides' arguments, the Rohini Court District Judge postponed making a decision.

Journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das, and Ayush Joshi appealed the September 6 injunction imposed by Special Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh, and District Judge Ashish Aggarwal of the Rohini court issued the order.

In the meantime, four journalists who requested a similar remedy against the Adani group had their plea accepted by another court, reported The Wire.

According to The Hindu, the judge noted that the defendants should have been allowed to be heard before such sweeping directions were issued. “While articles and posts spanning a substantial period were questioned by the plaintiff through the suit, the court didn’t deem it fit to grant an opportunity of hearing to the defendants before passing the impugned order. In my opinion, the civil judge ought to have granted that opportunity before passing an order which had the impact of prima facie declaring articles are defamatory and even directing their removal,” the judge said.

The injunction had been granted in a defamation suit filed by AEL, which alleged that “coordinated defamatory” content was being published to tarnish its reputation and disrupt its global business operations. 

The September 6 order, however, clarified that it was not imposing a blanket restraint on “fair, verified and substantiated” reporting.

“At this stage, instead of issuing a blanket order on restraining defendants No. 1 to 9 from fair, verified and substantiated reporting and from hosting, storing/circulating such articles/posts/URLs, it would suffice the interest of justice to restrain defendants No. 1 to 10 from publishing/distributing/circulating unverified, unsubstantiated and ex-facie defamatory reports about the plaintiff (Adani Enterprises Limited), allegedly tarnishing the reputation of the plaintiff, till the next date of hearing,” the September 6 order had said.

In their appeals, the journalists argued that the civil court had passed an overbroad restraining order without identifying which specific content was defamatory.

Another Delhi court bench deferred its decision on Thursday, September 18, 2025, in a different appeal filed by journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, who has also contested the ex parte injunction. Citing the September 6 decision, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ordered a number of news organisations and independent journalists to take down potentially defamatory content regarding AEL on September 16, 2025.  138 YouTube links and 83 Instagram posts containing humorous films, investigative stories, and unintentional references to the Adani Group were covered by the warnings.

According to reports, those who received takedown notices included Newslaundry, The Wire, HW News, Ravish Kumar, Ajit Anjum, Thakurta, Dhruv Rathee, and satirist Akash Banerjee. Copies of the notice were also sent to Meta and Google, placing responsibility on them as intermediaries to act under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.