Delhi court restrains London-based lawyer from selling book allegedly defamatory against Congress' Abhishek Manu Singhvi

A Delhi court has restrained London-based lawyer Sarosh Zaiwalla from selling his upcoming book which allegedly contains defamatory statements against senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and his family members.

District Judge Sanjeev Jain, while hearing a suit filed by Singhvi against Zaiwalla on Monday, passed the directions till further orders noting that a strong "prima facie" was made out in favour of Singhvi and that his reputation was at stake.

In the suit moved through advocate Vijay Aggarwal, Singhvi alleged that Zaiwalla defamed his family by linking his father LM Singhvi to Bofors case in the book. Singhvi sought directions to restrain the accused from making any further defamatory statement or sell the book till the pendency of the case.

"His reputation would suffer irreparable harm if injunctions prayed for is not granted as much as he would suffer further loss to his reputation," the judge said while slating the matter for May 4 for further hearing.

The court also noted that "in the instant case, the reputation of the plaintiff is at stake. His reputation would suffer irreparable harm if injunctions, as prayed, for is not granted as much as he would suffer further loss to his reputation a strong prima facie case is made out in favour of the plaintiff."

The defendant is accordingly restrained from making any further unvaried unsubstantiated, and ex-factor defamatory statements concerning the plaintiff and his family, or repeating and republishing the statements made in the article and reproduced in the plaint... during the pendency fit he present suit, the court observed.

"Similarly other dependents (publishers and distributors of the book) are restrained from marketing or supplying the book to individuals and book vendors/sellers for reading or further re-sale during the pendency of the present suit till the next date of hearing," the court said.

A Delhi court had earlier summoned Zaiwalla, asking him to appear before it on May 29 over a defamation complaint in the same case. The order had come after perusing the testimonies of the witnesses and considering the original documentary evidence on record.

According to the complaint, the book titled 'Honour Bound ~ Adventures of an Indian Lawyer in the English Courts' had made certain "unverified" and "false" statements against Singhvi and his family.