The Karnataka High Court ruled on June 25 that temporary injunctions and restraint orders can be granted only against defendants in a suit and not against third parties. The ruling by Justice M Nagaprasanna came on a petition related to a trademark dispute between journalist Rachappa Satish Kumar of BTV Kannada and a firm called Eaglesight Media.
The journalist and the television channel, where he is a director, approached the high court stating that their pages on all social media platforms had been removed with reference to a civil court order, which was issued in a suit registered by Eaglesight Media, with which they have multiple court cases pending.
In its plaint before the additional city civil and sessions judge, Eaglesight Media had argued that the trademarks and logo of BTV Kannada were registered with it.
The high court petition was filed under the premise that the petitioners had not been made parties to Eaglesight Media’s suit, while all the social media platforms had been.
The petitioners argued that the civil court’s temporary injunction violated natural justice as the suit was full of allegations that they had to defend themselves against. However, the opposing counsel argued this would only be a continuance of a 2022 order in another piece of litigation where there was a restraint against the petitioners.
The high court observed that “what had to be done directly cannot be done indirectly”, stating that the act of not making the petitioners party to the suit was a dubious step.
“Restraint orders against third parties who are not made parties to the suit cannot be granted by any canon of law. While litigants may make or may not make certain parties as defendants, though seeking a prayer against those persons, the concerned Court cannot blissfully ignore the law and pass the orders of the kind that is now passed,” the court ruled.
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Setting aside the civil court order, the high court directed that the petitioners would have to be impleaded as parties to the suit, failing which no order could be passed against them.
Bengaluru civil courts have passed ex parte gag orders and injunctions against the media on multiple occasions.
A prominent example of this is a gag order that BJP MP Tejasvi Surya obtained in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against 49 media organisations. It was later struck down by a division bench of the Karnataka High Court.
More recently, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai obtained such an order against “defamatory material” in August 2024, when an advocate claimed to be in possession of private videos of the BJP leader.
In 2023, BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa obtained a gag order against defamatory opinions and panel discussions in the context of corruption allegations levelled against him and his son Prashant.