Delhi HC permits Jai Anant Dehadrai to withdraw defamation lawsuit against TMC leader Mahua Moitra

Dehadrai in his lawsuit had claimed that after he filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over Moitra receiving "illegal" gratification for unauthorisedly providing her Lok Sabha login credentials to a third party, she "embarked on a ceaseless campaign of slander and abuse" to disseminate "false, abusive, and defamatory statements" against him.

Taking note of Dehadrai's submission, a single judge bench of Justice Prateek Jalan said, "Learned counsel for the plaintiff (Dehadrai) upon instructions from the plaintiff who is present in court, seeks permission to withdraw the suit. The suit is dismissed as withdrawn".

Earlier in the hearing, Dehadrai's counsel Raghav Awasthi said that his client is willing to "withdraw" the lawsuit subject to an "assurance/undertaking or anything that can come from their (Moitra's) side" that no "palpably false" statement will be made by Moitra against his client.

Noting that there were pending cases between the parties in the high court, Justice Jalan said, "As counsel, I hope you will all agree that judicial time is not best spent on these kinds of disputes between people who ought to be able to figure out a better way of resolving their problems."

The court said that if there was some way by which "this crossfire" could be stopped then that is a "welcome suggestion".

Justice Jalan, thereafter, asked the counsel for the parties if they could sit together and agree to the wording of the order which can be passed by the Court.

Moitra's counsel Samudra Sarangi, however, said "he can come back with a statement if he is instructed" to do so from his client but "there cannot be a settlement" between his client and Dehadrai.

To this, Justice Jalan orally said, "I'm not saying that. I'm only saying that it would be of assistance to me in fashioning an agreed… order if at least counsel to counsel, you both can possibly come to some agreed wording of what that order should be."

Thereafter, Awasthi said, "I have just received instructions. I would like to withdraw this suit. If at all there is a settlement… there is another suit pending between the same parties, in any case."

The court queried if the withdrawal was unconditional, to which Awasthi said, "Yes, as a peace offering."