TRP Scam: Court orders ₹1,500 in fees as Param Bir Singh drops his defamation case against Arnab Goswami
Singh filed the lawsuit, claiming that Republic channel’s coverage of the alleged bogus Television Rating Points (TRP) scandal painted Singh in a negative light.
The defamation lawsuit filed by senior IPS officer Param Bir Singh against Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and ARG Outlier Media, the channel’s owner, demanding damages in the amount of 90 lakh, was unconditionally withdrawn on Wednesday.
Singh filed the lawsuit, saying that the channel’s coverage of the purported bogus Television Rating Points (TRP) scandal painted Singh in a negative light.
Last Monday, Goswami submitted a request under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure to have the plaint rejected. Singh received the same in exchange for his response.
When Singh stated that he wanted to drop the lawsuit, the application was set for hearing today.
However, Goswami’s attorney, Pradeep Gandhy, said that such a withdrawal should not be seen as a sign that the dispute has been resolved.
Additionally, he noted that Goswami was harassed while such things were pending at Singh’s direction, therefore it was crucial to impose costs.
Given this, City Civil Judge VD Kelkar ordered Goswami to pay 1,500 in charges up front.
Goswami has already declared that the litigation was unmaintainable, particularly in view of the fact that the plaintiff is no longer the Police Commissioner, in a thorough response to the lawsuit.
The reply, submitted through the law firm Phoenix Legal, stated that the plaintiff “has no cause of action to pursue the present litigation as the plaintiff is no longer the Commissioner of Police and, thus, the present suit is not maintainable and the plaint ought to be rejected in limine.”
Goswami argued that Singh had no legal grounds to sue him or his channel because the lawsuit had been brought in his capacity as Commissioner, which he no longer possessed.
The reply requested that the lawsuit be denied and dismissed with costs in light of this.
Singh has not approached the Court with clean hands and filed the instant Suit with malafide intentions to teach the defendants and company a lesson without any basis and is not entitled to any reliefs whatsoever, the defendants emphasised. “The instant suit has been filed by in exasperation,” they added.
The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police discovered that “sampling metering services” were being controlled by paying people to watch specific TV stations, which led to the discovery of the TRP scam through some Hansa Group workers.
In November 2020, they submitted a chargesheet that claimed Republic TV channels had profited from the fraud and had manipulated their audience statistics to increase revenue.
Arnab Goswami was not listed as an accused party in the police chargesheet till June 2021.
The ED chargesheet, on the other hand, said that it had not found any proof that Republic TV or Republic Bharat had engaged in practises of manipulating TRPs, either through statements or digital evidence.
According to the agency, there appeared to be a discrepancy between the Mumbai Police inquiry and the ED investigation.
Goswami claimed that the current lawsuit accusing him and the channel of defamation was nothing more than a case of malicious prosecution intended to attack, harass, and get them involved in many cases.
The fact that Singh acknowledged that investigations were being directed in political directions in an eight-page letter he sent to the chief minister of Maharashtra on March 20, 2021, further establishes that the entire investigation into the alleged TRP Scam by the Mumbai Police was tainted and harboured malice, the response said.
The response drew attention to the fact that Singh allegedly stated during his questioning by the Enforcement Directorate that the TRP case, particularly against Republic TV, was a fabrication.
He allegedly testified that former Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze was receiving directions in the TRP case and other cases from former State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
“Waze acknowledged that Deshmukh had wished for Goswami to be detained in the TRP case personally. The extent of governmental, police, and media collusion against the defendants, and notably against Goswami, is demonstrated by this without a shadow of a doubt, the response argued.”
Pradeep Gandhy, who was representing Goswami and ARG Outlier, was briefed by Phoenix Legal attorneys Saket Shukla, Vikram Kamath, and Zoeb Cutlerywala.
Written By: Lakshman Singh, B.B.A LL.B (Hons.), Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, Lucknow
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