HC to hear Times Now's suit against News Laundry on Feb 22

The Bombay High Court on Mondayposted for February 22 hearing on a defamation suit filed bytelevision news channel Times Now against News Laundrywebsite, accusing the portal of running programmes thatallegedly defame the channel.

The news channel, in the suit filed in December 2020through its parent firm, Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd(BCCL), against News Laundry Media Pvt Ltd, which runs thewebsite, has sought damages of Rs 100 crore for defamation,mental distress and harassment.

It has also sought an interim order from the courtdirecting News Laundry to delete two programmes aired inOctober and November 2020 that allegedly make grave andunfounded aspersions against the plaintiff (Times Now),''causing enormous damage to its reputation''.

BCCL lawyer Vijay Hiremath on Monday claimed before asingle bench of Justice A K Menon that the statements made bythe host in the programmes ''are false, baseless anddefamatory''.

News Laundry, in its affidavit submitted in responseto the application, said it never meant to defame or causedisrepute to any media house but was only trying to commentupon how media outlets are more focused on TRPs instead ofreporting facts.

Justice Menon posted the matter for hearing onFebruary 22.