Delhi Excise Policy: Court restrains BJP leader Sirsa from making defamatory statements against liquor company

Additional District Judge Satish Kumar of Rohini district court said Sirsa is restrained from making any “defamatory/derogatory statement” in any of his press conferences or on social media against Brindco Sales Private Limited till the next date of hearing, which is July 14. The court also issued summons to Sirsa seeking his response to the suit filed by Brindco Sales.

“No one has any right to make any defamatory statement in any of the press conference[s] which [may] cause damage and malign and lower down the reputation of any company, be that a person or a company,” said the court.

However, it refused to pass any order at this stage for the removal of an online news report containing the allegations made by Sirsa on June 8.

Advocates Stuti Gupta and Prabhav Ralli, appearing for the plaintiff, told the court that Brindco Sales is a leading importer and distributor of alcoholic beverages. They told the court that Sirsa on June 8 made “certain blatantly false, malicious and ex-facie defamatory statements against the plaintiff company in public and that press conference was live telecasted and circulated on national media and social media”.

Seeking an interim injunction against Sirsa, the counsel argued that the statements were given with a malicious intent to cause “prejudice, damage and loss to name, reputation and credibility of” the company.

Sirsa recently sent a complaint to the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation alleging that AAP leaders extended “wrongful gains and favours” to liquor wholesalers by enacting a tailor-made excise policy in Delhi. Alleging corruption in the implementation of the policy, Sirsa had said that the same model was now being extended to Punjab.