Delhi court orders removal of ‘unverified’ reports on Adani Enterprises from all platforms: Report

In a major relief for Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), a Delhi court on September 6 restrained a group of journalists and foreign-linked entities from publishing or circulating unverified defamatory content against the company.

In an interim order, the court also directed the removal of alleged defamatory content from articles, social media posts, and videos targeting the conglomerate.

Senior Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh was hearing a suit filed by AEL, which alleged that coordinated defamatory content published on websites such as paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org, and adanifiles.com.au was aimed at damaging its reputation and disrupting its global operations.

The defendants named in the case include journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskanta Das, and Ayush Joshi, as well as organisations such as Bob Brown Foundation, Dreamscape Network International, Getup Limited, and Domain Directors Private Limited (trading as Instra), along with unnamed others.

“There is a prima facie case in favour of the plaintiff. Even the balance of convenience lies in the favour of the plaintiff, considering that continual forwarding/publishing/re-tweeting and trolling would further tarnish his image in public perception and may result in a media trial,” the court noted.

The court restrained the defendants from publishing or sharing any unverified or unsubstantiated content against AEL until the next hearing. It also ordered the defendants to remove any such material from their online platforms within five days.

Further, the court allowed AEL to notify additional links for takedown and directed intermediaries including Google, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) to disable access to such material within 36 hours if defendants fail to act.

The matter will be heard next on October 9.

(With inputs from PTI)