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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday, heard the defamation suit filed by Senior Advocate Nalin Kohli against the Hindi daily newspaper Dainik Bhaskar. The matter was listed before Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora.

Senior Advocate Aman Lekhi appeared on behalf of the plaintiff, Nalin Kohli, and presented the terms of a possible settlement with Dainik Bhaskar to the court. 

Senior Advocate Lekhi submitted that although the damage had already been done, a mutually agreed message should be pinned on the platform X to clarify the matter. He stated that at the time of publication, the journalist responsible for the content was employed by Dainik Bhaskar, although the publication now claimed otherwise.

Advocate Ashish Verma for Dainik Bhaskar informed the Court that while he could not provide an undertaking on behalf of the journalist, he could convey the agreement in good faith. He submitted that the plaintiff’s photograph was removed from the video, and the name reference in the video will be beeped. All references to the plaintiff will be removed, and a disclaimer or clarification will be added to the story. However, he expressed uncertainty about whether such clarification could be pinned on X.

Advocate Ashish Verma informed the Court that the article published by defendants 2 and 3 had been deleted, and its link had been removed.

The court questioned whether the agreed text would be posted on the publication’s X handle. Advocate Verma responded that the text would be pinned on the homepage of the Dainik Bhaskar website for a period of one week. 

The court noted that the suit sought a declaration, damages, and both permanent and mandatory injunctions in respect of allegedly defamatory content published on X concerning the plaintiff.

The counsels informed the court that they had arrived at an out-of-court settlement concerning the removal of the defamatory content. The court recorded that Dainik Bhaskar agreed to publish a corrigendum in both Hindi and English on its website, and to post the Hindi version on its X handle as well.

Advocate Verma undertook to remove the video and delete all references to the plaintiff’s name in the article. He also assured the court that the corrigendum and its translations would be posted on the publication’s top news section for at least one week. Although the corrigendum might move down the page as new content was uploaded, it would remain within the top section for the stipulated period.

The court further noted that the journalists involved had already removed the video and post from their respective X accounts, which was confirmed by the plaintiff's side.

For Plaintiff: Senior Advocate Aman Lekhi with Advocates Shankh Sengupta, Ribhu Garg, Shreyash Sharma, Ujjwal Sinha, Ritwiz Rishabh, Aniket Sethi, Nimisha Menon, Anshul Malik, Ayuush Man Arora, and Shruti Agrawal
For Defendant: Advocates Ashish Verma and Kartikay Bhargava
Case Title: Nalin Satyakam Kohli v D B Corp Limited (CS(OS) 239/2025)