Delhi court restrains London-based lawyer from selling book which 'defames' Singhvi's family

A Delhi court has restrained London-based lawyer Sarosh Zaiwalla from selling his book which allegedly defames senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and his family.

District Judge Sanjeev Jain on Monday passed the directions till further order on a criminal defamation complaint against Zaiwalla for allegedly defaming Singhvi's family by linking his father L M Singhvi to the Bofors case in the book.

The judge said that a strong case "prima facie" was made out in favour of Singhvi and that his reputation was at stake.

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.

In his complaint moved by advocate Vijay Aggarwal, Singhvi sought to restrain Zaiwalla from making any further defamatory statement or sell the book till the pendency of the case.

"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...

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

It will further hear the matter on May 4.

A Delhi court had earlier summoned Zaiwalla, asking him to appear on May 29.

The court order had came 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.

Singhvi filed complaint against Zaiwalla for allegedly defaming him and his deceased father "with the intentions to hurt the feelings of his family and relatives through the book".