Delhi High Court Dismisses Bloomberg’s Appeal Against ZEE Entertainment Over Defamatory Article

The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld a trial court’s order directing Bloomberg Television Production Services India Pvt Ltd (Bloomberg) to take down the defamatory article dated February 21 published against ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEE) relating to the corporate governance and business operations of the latter.

Additional District Judge (ADJ) Harjyot Singh Bhalla, in relief to ZEE, had held that it had made out a prima facie case for passing ad interim ex-parte orders of injunction and directed Bloomberg to take down the defamatory article from its platform within one week of receipt of the order.

Bloomberg had, last week, moved the high court against the ADJ’s order.

Justice Shalinder Kaur, who presided over the case, dismissed Bloomberg’s appeal and granted three days’ time to comply with the directions of the ADJ.

The trial court had restrained Bloomberg from posting, circulating, or publishing the article on any online or offline platform till the next date of hearing.

ZEE, in its suit, argued that the Bloomberg article which mentioned details relating to the corporate governance and business operations of ZEE, were inaccurate in nature and led to a 15 per cent drop in share price of the company, eroding investor wealth. It said that the “false and factually incorrect” article was published, with a pre-meditated and mala fide intention to defame the company.

The article, it said, incorrectly published that Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has found a $241 million accounting issue at the company, whereas there is no such order from the mentioned regulator.

Despite the company firmly refuting the same, the article incorrectly published financial irregularities in ZEE, without the basis of any order from the regulator, ZEE said.

Counsel for ZEE argued in the hearing on Wednesday that irreparable loss and injury may be caused to the company if the injunction, as prayed for, was not granted.