LI Network
Published on: 12 May 2023 at 12:17 IST
Assam Public Works (APW) president Aabhijeet Sharma has filed a defamation case against former Chief Justice of India (CJI) and current Rajya Sabha MP Ranjan Gogoi, as well as his publisher Rupa Publications, in a local court.
The case, which seeks damages of ₹1 crore, alleges that Gogoi’s autobiography ‘Justice for a Judge’ contains misleading and defamatory statements against Sharma.
Additionally, Sharma has filed a petition seeking an ad-interim injunction to prevent Gogoi and his publisher from further publishing, distributing or selling any book containing defamatory statements against him.
The plaintiff, Sharma, has taken legal action against Ranjan Gogoi and Rupa Publications by filing a defamation case. The case alleges that the book ‘Justice for a Judge’, published by Rupa Publications and authored by Ranjan Gogoi, contains misleading and defamatory statements against Sharma.
The defamation case and petition for an injunction were filed in the Kamrup metro district court.
The case was heard on Tuesday and the court issued a ruling on Wednesday stating that there are substantial questions of both law and fact to be adjudicated after reviewing the petition and documents.
The court has directed the issuance of summons to both the petitioner and defendants and set the next hearing for June 3. In the injunction case, the judge determined that the matter was not emergent and refused to grant any ex-parte order without hearing the opposing parties.
The court has directed the issuance of summons to the involved parties and set the next hearing for June 3 as well.
Thank you for the additional information. It seems that the petitioner, Aabhijeet Sharma, is the president of the Assam Public Works (APW), which was the first organization to petition the Supreme Court to strike out the names of illegal migrants from the voters’ list in Assam. This petition eventually led to the updation of the National Register of Citizens in the northeastern state.
Sharma alleges that the imputations against him in Gogoi’s autobiography are false and malicious, and have been made with the intention to defame him. He claims that there is no proof to support these allegations and that they have irreparably tarnished his reputation.
Sharma further adds that he has never made any personal attacks on Gogoi while he was serving as the Chief Justice of India. Gogoi served as the 46th Chief Justice of India from 2018 to 2019.