Delhi HC hears Harper Collins' plea against stay on publication of book on Asaram Bapu
Sep 09, 2020
New Delhi [India], September 9 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday heard the plea filed by Harper Collins challenging trial court order restraining publication of a book titled "Gunning for the Godman: The True Story Behind Asaram Bapu's Conviction".
A single-judge bench of Justice Najmi Waziri issued notice to Sanchita Gupta and listed the matter for further hearing on Wednesday.
Sanchita is a co-accused in a case related to self-styled Godman Asaram Bapu and had approached the Court seeking urgent relief against the publication of the book as the pre-released chapter published on a web portal was defamatory of her and was likely to prejudice her appeal pending before the Rajasthan High Court.
Justice Waziri also allowed the plea of Flipkart and Amazon to delete them from the memo of parties followed by their submission that they shall abide by the direction issued by the court.
Harper Collins has moved the Delhi High Court against a district court order restraining publication of a book titled "Gunning for the Godman: The True Story Behind Asaram Bapu's Conviction".
The Patiala House Court of Delhi on September 4 directed the defendants to restrain from publishing the book titled "Gunning for the Godman: The True Story behind the Asaram Bapu Conviction" till the next date of hearing.
Additional District Judge RS Meena on Friday granted interim relief to Sanchita Gupta and restrain the publication of a book.
Gupta had approached the Court in a civil suit filed by her advocates Naman Joshi and Karan Khanuja and the matter was strongly argued by Advocate Vijay Aggarwal.
Arguing for Sanchita, Advocate Aggarwal informed the Court that the book was being published by Harper Collins and scheduled to release on September 5, 2020, both physically and online.
The book authored by Ajay Lamba, Additional Commissioner of Police, Jaipur and Sanjiv Mathur claims to be a true story, however, is at variance with the trial record and most importantly interfered with Sanchita's appeal which was sub-judice and where the Rajasthan High Court had already suspended her sentence.
