SC declines Caravan's plea to transfer case at this stage

The Supreme Court has declined for now the plea of 'Caravan' magazine seeking transfer of a Rs 250 crore civil defamation suit filed against it by the Essar Group in Ahmedabad to a court here.
Essar Group had filed a suit in Ahmedabad Court alleging that a report published in the periodical had defamed its image.
The petition had come up for hearing yesterday before a bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Amitava Roy which asked magazine's counsel Prashant Bhushan to consider withdrawing it as the matter was at an initial stage.
"Counsel for the petitioners seeks leave of this Court to withdraw this transfer petition with liberty to approach this Court at a later stage. Permission sought for is granted. The transfer petition is, accordingly, dismissed as withdrawn with the aforesaid liberty," the bench said.