Jay Amit Shah’s defamation case hearing adjourned to October 16

The first hearing of Jay Amit Shah’s high profile defamation case against the news website The Wire was adjourned in a metropolitan court in Ahmedabad because his lawyer, senior advocate SV Raju could not attend the hearing as he was busy in the Gujarat High Court. A lawyer for Amit Shah’s son, sought time from Additional Chief Metropolitan Megistrate SK Gadhvi and the court granted the time. The next hearing is scheduled to take place on October 16.

Jay Amit Shah hade filed a criminal defamation case against the news portal in a metropolitan court, which claimed in an article that his company registered huge profits after the BJP formed the government at the centre in 2014. A court enquiry was ordered by the Magistrate in the matter under CrPC section 202.

Jay Shah had appealed to the court in his application for “criminal action against the respondents for defaming and tarnishing” his reputation by publishing an article “which is scandalous, frivolous, misleading, derogatory...”

The respondents in the case are- Rohini Singh (the writer), editors of The Wire, Siddarth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M.K. Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and Foundation for Independent Journalism, a non-profit company which publishes the website.

The court holds that it will issue summonses to the respondents only after the initial inquiry establishes a case. Jay Shah has not as yet filed a ₹100 crore civil defamation case against the respondents which he had earlier announced.