Jurisdiction of defamation suit not based on place: HC

The Delhi High Court has said that the courts here would not have the jurisdiction to entertain a defamation suit merely due to the fact that an interview on which a defaming article was based was conducted in Delhi.
Justice Valmiki J Mehta said that the appeal is a "gross wastage of judicial time" and is dismissed with a cost of Rs 10,000 which shall be deposited within four weeks with the website www.Bharatkeveer.Gov.In.
The court's verdict came on an appeal filed by one Deepak Kumar, who had challenged the trial court's order, dismissing his plea asking him to approach before the correct territorial jurisdiction as the newspaper had its head office here.

The court refused to accept this argument, saying the defamatory content of the article would come to the knowledge of the people only when it is published.
Therefore, an interview in itself does not result in a cause of action in Delhi, as defamation is caused only on account of the article which has been published in a Hindi newspaper at Bhagalpur in Bihar, the court said.
On Kumar's argument that Delhi has a jurisdiction as the newspaper has its head office here, the high court noted that it had already been held by the Supreme Court that a mere plea of existence of head office of a defendant company will not confer jurisdiction on a court.

It opined that the man was "misleading the court" by arguing that since the interview had taken place in Delhi, the courts in Delhi would have territorial jurisdiction to deal with the suit.
"Therefore, the court below has rightly held that no part of the cause of action has accrued in Delhi for this court to have territorial jurisdiction," it added.