The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued summons to TMC leader Mahua Moitra on a lawsuit by her estranged friend seeking damages of Rs 2 crore for her alleged defamatory statements against him.
Justice Prateek Jalan also sought the stand of the expelled Lok Sabha MP on lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai's plea seeking interim relief with respect to the publication of the alleged objectionable content on social and digital media.
Jai Dehadrai's counsel said he was losing business and clients as a lawyer on account of Mahua Moitra's statements on social media.
The court questioned Jai Dehadrai's counsel on the urgency to seek an interim order at this stage without awaiting Mahua Moitra's reply, adding it was not a case of victim and perpetrator as both were "warring parties" and the content was published over two months ago.
"This is as much your doing as anyone else. It is very difficult to paint yourself as a victim. You are both warring parties. There is no victim or perpetrator," Justice Jalan remarked.
"These are cases where half of the battle is fought in court and half the battle is fought elsewhere," added the judge.
Mahua Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha on December 8 following accusations by the complainant that she took bribes from businessman and Hiranandani Group CEO Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.
Advocate Raghav Awasthi, appearing for the complainant, said his allegations against Mahua Moitra have been verified by a parliamentary committee, the Lokpal as well the high court which recently refused to restrain him from posting content against her on social media.
Best is to give Mahua Moitra time to file a reply, the court said as it asked the politician to file her stand on the case.
The court also asked social media platforms Google and X as well as certain media organisations to file their responses.
In the lawsuit filed through lawyer Mukesh Sharma, Jai Dehadrai said after he filed a complaint with the CBI with respect to Mahua Moitra receiving illegal gratification for unauthorisedly providing her Lok Sabha login credentials to a third party, she "embarked on a ceaseless campaign of slander and abuse" to disseminate "false, abusive, and defamatory statements'' against him.
The plea said Mahua Moitra's statements have lowered the complainant's esteem in the eyes of friends, family and colleagues as they portray him as a "person who has become bitter due to a failed personal relationship and is now filing false complaints to take revenge for the said reason".
The matter would be heard next on April 8.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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