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The high court is set to hear on Friday a plea by Dow Jones & Co, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, against an earlier order restricting it from publishing an article on the Indiabulls group.
Indiabulls Real Estate and Indiabulls Housing Finance are respondents to the petition, moved last month by the American company. Indiabulls had said it would reply.The matter is listed before a bench of judges Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva.
“We continue to challenge Indiabulls’ misconceived suits and look forward to the court lifting the current restrictions. We are committed to free and accurate reporting and are taking all measures to ensure our readers are well informed,” a Dow Jones spokesperson told Business Standard in an e-mail response last month, after the plea was filed.
In April, the HC had restrained The Wall Street Journal and one of its senior reporters, Geeta Anand, from publishing any report on the Indiabulls group on matters relating to a report published by Canadian research firm Veritas Investment Corporation in 2012, and a legal tussle that ensued between the two. The order followed an application by Indiabulls Real Estate, alleging Anand, a Pulitzer-winning reporter of the Journal, had sent it a “threatening e-mail” and was about to publish a “defamatory” article on the group.
On May 22, the court upheld an appeal by Anand and allowed her to publish the article, subject to Press Council of India guidelines. However, the order added, “This modification has been made only in respect of the appellant.” This meant while Anand was free to publish, the paper could not, necessitating separate appeals by Dow Jones.
Fight for right to write
* April 16: Delhi HC restrains WSJ and reporter Geeta Anand from publishing
* May 22: Order granting relief to reporter; notice to other respondents
* July 3: Appeals by Dow Jones & Co admitted and notice to Indiabulls
* July 10: Indiabulls accepts notice, says will file reply
* August 7: Listed for hearing
