HC sets aside stay on Mahua Moitra's defamation complaint proceedings

The Delhi High Court Thursday set aside an order staying proceedings in a defamation complaint filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra against Zee News and its editor-in-chief Sudhir Chaudhary in connection with a show on her June 25 speech in Parliament.

Justice Brijesh Sethi set aside the September 25 decision of the Sessions court which had put on hold the defamation proceedings against the channel going on before a magisterial court.

In her plea, the Trinamool Congress MP had contended that the Sessions court ought not to have intervened in the defamation proceedings when it was at the pre-summoning stage.

The order had come on an application moved by Chaudhary seeking perjury action against the MP for allegedly concealing relevant facts in her defamation complaint.

Moitra in her plea before the high court had said that the Sessions court ought not to have stayed the proceedings against a "proposed" accused on his plea.

In her defamation complaint Moitra had said that her June 25 speech was inspired by a holocaust poster in a United States museum, containing 14 signs of early fascism and that she had "clearly attributed" the source as she stated that the signs were taken from the said poster.

The complaint claimed that the news channel ran a broadcast stating that she had plagiarised her "hate-filled speech" delivered in Parliament.

Subsequently, Zee News filed a defamation complaint against Moitra for allegedly making statements against them to the media.

The alleged defamatory statement against the news channel was made while she was speaking to reporters on the allegation against her.

Moitra has been summoned by a magisterial court to appear before it on October 25 in the defamation complaint by the channel.