Ahmedabad court adjourns Jay Shah defamation case to 16 December as he seeks exemption from appearance

A court in Ahmedabad on Monday adjourned the hearing in the criminal defamation case filed by BJP chief Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah against news portal ‘The Wire’ to 16 December, The Indian Express reported. [caption id=“attachment_4158281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BJP chief Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah. AFP[/caption] This came after Jay Shah sought an exemption from appearance in court for a day on grounds of a social engagement, the report added. The defamation case is regarding a report in The Wire claiming that the turnover of Jay Shah’s firm grew exponentially after BJP came to power in 2014. The Wire team reached the Ahmedabad court on time and Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of the portal, tweeted a picture of the team outside the court. Those who appeared before the court were author of the article, Rohini Singh, founding editors Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and MK Venu, and managing editor Monobina Gupta, according to PTI. Two others - public editor Pamela Philipose and a representative of the Foundation for Independent Journalism, the non-profit company that publishes The Wire, could not appear citing different reasons.

The Wire team outside the Ahmedabad courts today where Jay Shah did a no show, citing "social work", in his bogus criminal defamation case. First matter I've seen where the complainant is scared to show his face, while the "accused" are happy to smile for the cameras. pic.twitter.com/cx1kGAwsuP

— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) November 13, 2017

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SK Gadhvi had issued summonses to journalist Rohini Singh, five editors and the non-profit company that publishes The Wire. The summons were issued after the Metropolitan Court prima facie found that a case of defamation punishable with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both under section 500 of IPC was made out against all the seven respondents, PTI reported. The case has been filed under IPC sections 500 (defamation), 109 (abetment), 39 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). The hearing was earlier adjourned on 11 October after Jay Shah’s lawyer failed to appear in court. The case was again adjourned on 17 October till 26 October because the court went on Diwali break. An Ahmedabad court had last month barred _The Wire_ from writing any more articles on Jay Shah’s business after the BJP chief’s son filed the case. In his application, Shah had prayed for “criminal action against the respondents for defaming and tarnishing the reputation of the complainant through an article, which is scandalous, frivolous, misleading, derogatory, libelous and consisting of several defamatory statements”. With inputs from agencies