Legal News and Insight around the Globe!

Delhi HC Restrains Ex-Hockey India Coach from Publishing Info Related to Medical Condition of Woman Player

Khushi Bajpai

Published on: September 19, 2022 at 21:39 IST

After a single bench last week refused to stay the release of a book authored by Sjoerd Marijne, the former coach of the Indian hockey team, a division bench of the Delhi High Court on Monday restrained the author and Harper Collins Publishers India Private Limited from publishing any material relating to the medical condition of Indian hockey player Gurjit Kaur.

The book “Will Power: The Inside Story of the Incredible Turn Around in Indian Women’s Hockey” is scheduled to be released on September 21.

A division bench comprising of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma was dealing with an appeal against a single judge’s order refusing to stay the release of the book, observing there cannot be any confidentiality or privacy with regard to the medical condition of a sports personality.

Gurjit Kaur, a field hockey player, had approached the single judge with a suit seeking a permanent and mandatory injunction as well as damages against the book’s publisher, HarperCollins Publisher Private Limited, and its author, Sjoerd Marijne.

Kaur’s case was that Marijne in the book had disclosed certain confidential information that was shared by her with him in confidence when he was the coach of the Indian hockey team.

Observing that no prejudice can be used against Kaur by the publication of the book, the court said valance of convenience requires that “no ad interim order be passed staying the release of the book.

The book’s publisher before last week’s single bench submitted that there was known to all other team members as well.

Advocate Swathi Sukumar, who represented Harper Collins, argued that being a public figure and a sort of personality, Kur could not have a right to privacy with regard to her medical condition.