Mahua Moitra Moves Delhi High Court Against 'Defamatory' Social Media Posts By BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, Lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai

Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra on Thursday filed a fresh application before the Delhi High Court against allegedly defamatory social media posts made against her by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora heard the application today briefly.

The application has been filed in the context of a quote tweet made by Dehadrai on X platform saying “Bombshell development in the Lokpal case filed by Dr. Nishikant Dubey MP.”

Dubey in his Facebook post wrote that CBI has filed a case with Lokpal regarding all of Moitra's alleged foreign accounts and expenses and that he has received a “letter” recently regarding the same.

Courtroom Exchange

Advocate Samudra Sarangi appeared for Moitra and told the Court that the one liner tweet has been made by Dehadrai, which is a screenshot uploaded of Dubey's Facebook post.

Seeking takedown of the posts, Sarangi submitted that Moitra wrote to the Lokpal regarding Dubey's social media post to which she was informed that no communication was made to Dubey.

Senior Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari appeared for Dubey and stated that the post in question is based on a judgment of Lokpal on Dubey's complaint against Moitra. He further said that no fresh communication has been received by Dubey from Lokpal or any other authority.

On Court's query on what Dubey meant from the “patra” (letter) referred to in his post, Bhandari said that Dubey receives a lot of information from people on a daily basis and that the post was based upon the Lokpal judgment itself.

Justice Arora then passed over the matter in order to enable Dubey's counsel to seek instructions if the Facebook post can be deactivated in the meantime.

The Court orally remarked that prima facie, Dubey's reliance on Lokpal's judgment did not support allegations made in his post against Moitra.

“Prima facie, this document does not support your allegations [against Moitra]. Until then, you please deactivate this [post],” the Court said.

On this, Bhandari said that Dubey has the right to upload Lokpal's order on Twitter. Justice Arora remarked that while Dubey has the right to do so, he cannot draw inferences from the order.

Bhandari then said that Moitra has been continuously calling Dubey as “Pitbull” in her social media posts which cannot be permitted.

To this, the Court said that if anyone uses abusive language against someone, the aggrieved person can write to the concerned social media intermediary and the said post can be taken down.

In the second session, Bhandari informed the Court that he has not been able to get through Dubey since he is travelling. He thus requested that the matter be taken up tomorrow.

Justice Arora then listed the application for hearing on Friday.

Background

The fresh application has been filed by Moitra in her defamation case against Dubey in Dehadrai. The suit was filed in 2023 over “false and defamatory allegations” against her that she demanded exchange of bribe for asking questions in Parliament.

Moitra sought to restrain Dubey, Dehadrai and media from publishing or posting any “false defamatory content” against her on any online or offline platform. She also sought public apology from Dubey and Dehradrai in three English, Hindi and Bengali newspapers each.

In the interim, Moitra had sought an ex-parte ad-interim injunction against the defendants and removal of the allegedly defamatory content posted against her on social media, including photos, videos, letters and publications. until the disposal of the suit.

The dispute arose after Dubey wrote a complaint to the Lok Sabha Speaker alleging that Moitra purportedly took bribes to ask questions in the Parliament. Dubey claimed that the genesis of the said allegations was a letter addressed to him by Dehadrai.

Moitra had then sent a legal notice to Dubey, Dehadrai and media houses wherein she denied the allegations made against her.

The legal notice added that Moitra has never accepted any remuneration or cash or gift or benefit of any kind in relation to the discharge of her duties as a MP, including but not limited to, the questions raised by her in the Parliament.

Tile: MAHUA MOITRA v. NISHIKANT DUBEY & ORS.