The Delhi High Court on Monday vacated its 2017 gag orders restraining the publication of allegations of sexual harassment against Mumbai-based venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy by multiple women. The judgment was passed by a single bench of Justice Jayant Nath, in a defamation suit filed by Murthy against 18 defendants. Murthy had sought damages amounting to Rs 2.5 crore. (See the interim injunction orders here and here). The injuncted materials include articles, posts, and journalistic reports containing allegations of sexual harassment against Murthy. These include a LinkedIn post by entrepreneur Ms. Chauhan, a post on IndianCEO.in detailing entrepreneur Ms Iyer’s allegations, and multiple FactorDaily reports, including one reporting on allegations by Ms. Bansal. Chauhan, Iyer, and Bansal, and a Bangalore-based HR executive Ms. Chadha were defendants in the case. Journalists and executives at SheThePeople.tv, and YourStory, and FactorDaily and its (then) editor Pankaj Mishra, were also defendants. The court said that the women and the publications / defendants “have a right to exercise their right of freedom of speech” and “it would not be reasonable in the facts and circumstances to fetter the narration of alleged facts and comments” by the women and other defendants, the court said. “If these incidents and claims of the said defendants are in trial proved to be false, the plaintiff would have a right to claim damages”. According to the court, Murthy “failed to make out a prima facie case” and the “balance of convenience is also not” in his favour. The high court…
