H D Deve Gowda has been alleging that the agency has acquired extra land. File
Bengaluru:
A Bengaluru court docket has requested former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to pay 2 crore in damages to Nandi Infrastructure Hall Enterprise Restricted (NICE) in reference to a defamation case in opposition to him for statements he made in a tv interview in 2011.
The corporate is constructing the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Hall Mission, a mega built-in infrastructure venture and one of many largest Construct-Personal-Function-Switch (BOOT) initiatives in India.
The corporate has contended that Mr Gowda, throughout the interview to a Kannada channel, levelled pointless and slanderous allegations in opposition to the corporate and its promoter and Managing Director Ashok Kheny.
The corporate stated that Mr Gowda accused the corporate of looting public cash and likewise stated that the BOOT venture is definitely a “loot venture”. The Janata Dal (Secular) chief additionally referred to NICE and Mr Kheny as “land mafia”, the corporate instructed the court docket.
It sought Rs 10 crore in damages and a everlasting injunction in opposition to Mr Gowda from making defamatory feedback in opposition to the corporate.
Mr Gowda’s authorized workforce cited the elemental proper of freedom of speech granted by the Structure and argued that any opinion and honest criticism of any particular person or organisation in its act regarding a public exercise or an exercise by which members of public have a significant concern can’t be restrained.
The court docket, nevertheless, requested Mr Gowda to pay damages and likewise restrained him from making any such assertion in opposition to the corporate sooner or later.
“The defendant is directed to pay damages of Rs.2,00,00,000/- to the plaintiff Firm for the lack of fame of the plaintiff Firm on account of the defamatory feedback made by the defendant within the interview telecasted within the ‘Suvarna 24/7’ Kannada information channel dated 28.6.2011,” the court docket stated in its order.
“The defendant is completely restrained from making any defamatory statements in opposition to the plaintiff Firm in any media, information channel, T.V. channel or in every other technique of mass communication in future,” it added.
The court docket order is the newest chapter within the extended standoff between the previous Prime Minister and NICE.
The settlement for the infrastructure hall venture was signed in 1995 when Mr Gowda was Karnataka Chief Minister. The consortium that was to construct the venture later handed on its rights to NICE. Since 2004, Mr Gowda has been alleging that the infrastructure agency has illegally acquired land in extra of what had been agreed upon.
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