Delhi court lifts gag order on journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in Adani case

A Delhi court on Thursday lifted the gag order that had restrained senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta from reporting on Adani. District judge Sunil Chaudhary said Thakurta will not be bound to follow the September 6 order of the Rohini civil court until the senior civil judge hears him and passes a fresh order.

Justice Chaudhary directed the civil judge (trial court) to hear the case of Thakurta along with other defendants on September 26 at 2 pm.

“Needless to say that Ld trial court while passing the fresh orders on the application under Order 39 Rule 1 and 2 CPC will consider the principles of law settled qua the grant of interim injunction. The appeal is disposed of accordingly and the appellant will not be liable to follow the order dated 06.09.2025 till fresh orders are passed by the court of Ld Senior Civil Judge upon hearing him,” the court said.

The gag order in the matter was passed on September 6 by senior civil judge Anuj Kumar Singh of the Rohini Court, who ordered the removal of the defamatory content against AEL and also asked the journalists to refrain from publishing unverified and defamatory information about the company. Apart from the five named journalists, injunction was also issued against John Doe defendants (unknown defendants).

An appeal filed by journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi against the order was allowed by judge Ashish Aggarwal on September 18. Thakurta’s appeal was heard by Judge Chaudhary in detail on two days, after which he reserved his orders on September 24.

Notably, the civil judge’s injunction order has been challenged by digital news platform Newslaundry as well. Newslaundry and journalist Ravish Kumar have also challenged the Central Government’s orders to take down the allegedly defamatory content pursuant to the court’s injunction.

The case arose after Adani Enterprises filed a defamation suit before the civil judge alleging that certain journalists, activists and organisations damaged its reputation and cost its stakeholders billions of dollars by causing massive loss to its image, brand equity and credibility of India’s brand as a country.

Adani Enterprises argued that these journalists and activists have “aligned with anti-India interests and have been continuously targeting Adani Enterprises’ infrastructure and energy projects which are critical to India’s infrastructure and energy security and have disrupted these projects with ulterior motives”.

AEL referred to the articles published on paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org and adanifiles.com.au and said that these websites have repeatedly published defamatory content against the company, the Adani Group, as well as its founder and chairman Gautam Adani. After considering the case, the civil court ruled that AEL had made a prima facie case for grant of interim injunction.

This led to the appeal before the district judge.