HC asks magazine to delete defamatory statement against a firm

The Bombay High Court has directed the magazine 'Down to Earth' to delete a sentence in an article on its website which alleges that UPL, an agrochemical company, belongs to the brother of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
The order was passed by Justice S J Kathawala on a suit filed by the company seeking damages of Rs 100 crore from Society for Environmental Communications, the publisher.
The counsel for the company, Mihir Desai, pointed out that the magazine had clarified that the allegation was baseless and the error was regretted.
"If that be so, the defendant ought to have forthwith removed the defamatory statement from its website since it is possible that a person reading the article may not read the clarification," the judge noted in the March 12 order.

As the main suit is pending, the court allowed the defendant to file an affidavit in reply by March 26 and asked the plaintiff to file a rejoinder on or before April 1.