No ex parte injunction in Gahlot defamation case: Delhi HC

THE DELHI High Court has refused to grant any ex parte injunction in the defamation suit filed by Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot against BJP MLA Vijender Gupta for allegedly making scandalous allegations against him with regard to alleged irregularities in purchase and maintenance of buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation.

Listing the suit for hearing on September 20, Justice Asha Menon, in an order released Saturday evening, said, “In the present case, prima facie, no personal allegations appear to have been specifically made against the plaintiff except to the extent of saying that the entire transaction appears to be a ‘scam’. At this stage, therefore, no ex parte injunction is called for.”

Relying on the order passed by High Court in the case filed by former diplomat Lakshmi Puri against activist Saket Gokhale, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, representing Gahlot, submitted, “In this case it is not a vigilante but a political rival. The clarification was given in the House. Now you cannot carry out the exercise outside. You are a responsible MLA.”

However, the court in the order said that facts of Puri’s case are “vastly different”.