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In a temporary setback for The Indian Express newspaper, the Bombay High Court on Monday (November 2) refused to issue directions, for now, to senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani to delete two of his allegedly defamatory posts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) against the news media outlet.

Single-judge Justice Arif Doctor, noted the 'assurance' given by senior advocate Zal Andhyarujina on behalf of Jethmalani that his client will not 'retweet' or 'repost' the two posts of September 27 and September 28, in which he accused Indian Express of being 'biased' for the Congress party and accordingly 'compromising' its editorial policy. The senior lawyer had also posted about alleged monetary transactions between the Congress and the media outlet during the West Bengal Assembly Elections of 2026 and also the 2023 Karnataka Assembly Elections.

Notably, Jethmalani made these allegedly objectionable posts after The Indian Express broke the story of the alleged 'internal dissent' among the Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner, particularly with regard to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Contending that these posts are defamatory, the newspaper approached the High Court in a civil suit, and sought interim injunction seeking deletion of the posts.

Andhyarujina, while opposing the media outlet's suit, pointed out that his client has put up at least 45 posts after the two posts in question and that if one had to see those posts, which the plaintiff claims to be 'defamatory ', one has to scroll down substantially on Jethmalani's X handle.

Countering the contention, the media group's senior lawyer Dinyar Madon urged the bench to pass some interim order at least for pulling down certain portions of the posts in question, as Jethmalani can anytime 'retweet' or 'repost' the offending posts.

Justice Doctor then sought to know from Andhyarujina if Jethmalani was likely to republish, repost or retweet the posts in question. However, he got a response in the negative. 

"His statement is accordingly accepted. This, in my view, would afford sufficient protection to the Plaintiff at this ad interim stage," Justice Doctor opined. 

However, when Madon pressed for deletion of certain identified portions of the said posts, Andhyarujina submitted that his client would like to place on record some material to justify what had been tweeted and would place the same on an Affidavit.

"Since this would require a detailed hearing, including consideration of, inter alia, the pleas of justification and maintainability of the Suit itself, it would be appropriate to now finally hear and dispose of the Interim Application after completion of pleadings. Liberty is granted to the Defendants to file and serve a detailed Affidavit in Reply to the Interim Application on or before November 20, 2026. Rejoinder, if any, by November 25, 2026," the judge recorded in the order. 

The matter has therefore been adjourned till November 27, 2026.

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