HC reserves order on The Wire's plea against defamation case

The Gujarat High Court today reserved its order on a petition filed by news portal The Wire, seeking quashing of a criminal defamation case filed against it by Jay Shah, the son of BJP president Amit Shah.
Justice J B Pardiwala reserved his order after hearing detailed arguments by both sides.
Advocate Mihir Joshi, representing journalist Rohini Singh, the author of the article "The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah", and its editors, told the court that the article was not defamatory, and that the facts presented in it were based on documents which were in public domain.
The article was a piece of investigative journalism, and filing of a criminal defamation case against it curtails the freedom of press, the lawyer argued.

Rohini Singh and others moved the high court last week seeking quashing of the defamation case filed by Jay Shah in magistrate's court.
The petition came up for hearing for the first time today.

Shah's lawyer S V Raju said the article was defamatory, and two witnesses examined by the lower court established that the reputation of his client was hurt by it.
The article, uploaded online, was later changed to remove earlier mistakes, he said.
The high court today did not allow government pleader Mitesh Amin to argue in the matter after he sought permission.
Jay Shah filed a criminal defamation case after the article claimed that his company's turnover grew exponentially within a short time after the BJP government came to power at the Centre in 2014.