Delhi HC sets aside stay on proceedings in Mahua Moitra's defamation case against Sudhir Chaudhary

The Delhi High Court on Thursday set aside the order staying proceedings in the defamation case filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra against Zee News chief editor Sudhir Chaudhary. [caption id=“attachment_6885071” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of TMC MP Mahua Moitra. Twitter @mahuamoitra[/caption] Justice Brijesh Sethi set aside the 25 September decision of the sessions court which put on hold the defamation proceedings against the channel going on before a magisterial court. The TMC leader approached the high court on 10 October after the sessions court accepted Chaudhary’s plea to stay defamation proceedings. In her plea before the high court, Moitra contended that the sessions court ought not to have intervened in the proceedings when it was at the pre-summoning stage. Chaudhary’s lawyer opposed Moitra’s plea, alleging that it was not maintainable. He said Chaudhary had moved a plea seeking perjury action against the Krishnanagar MP for allegedly concealing relevant facts in her defamation complaint, which was why the sessions court stayed the defamation proceedings. In response, Moitra’s lawyers said that the Sessions court should not have stayed proceedings against a “proposed accused”. In her defamation complaint, Moitra said that her June 25 speech was inspired by a holocaust poster in a United States museum containing 14 signs of early fascism and that she had “clearly attributed” the source as she stated that the signs were taken from the said poster. The complaint claimed that the news channel ran a broadcast stating that she had plagiarised her “hate-filled speech” delivered in Parliament. Subsequently, Zee News filed a defamation complaint against Moitra for allegedly making statements against them to the media. The alleged defamatory statement against the news channel was made while she was speaking to reporters on the allegation against her. Moitra has been summoned by a magisterial court to appear before it on 25 October in the defamation complaint by the channel. With inputs from PTI