Journalist Tarun Tejpal Issues Apology For Defamatory Article Against Top Army Officer, High Court Informed

According to the Delhi High Court on Friday, journalist Tarun Tejpal said that he would write an apology in a national daily saying that an Indian Army officer he had accused of corruption in defense procurement had not taken any money.

As the high court heard the appeal, Tejpal, the owner of Tehelka.com, and its reporter Aniruddha Bahal were questioning a single judge’s decision to give Rs 2 crore to Major General M S Ahluwalia as compensation for the damage to his reputation caused by a news portal’s “expose” in 2001 that said he was involved in corruption in defense procurement.

Two people’s lawyers also told the high court that they would each pay 10 lakh rupees with the court.

Noting the promise made by Tejpal and Bahal’s lawyers, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora set the appeal for hearing and decision in April to decide how much money they should pay in damages.

Additionally, the high court put an end to the processes in Ahluwalia’s petition to have the decree made in his favor carried out.

The lawyers for Tejpal and Bahal, Siddharth Luthra and Pramod Kumar Dubey, said they were ready to pay a deposit of 10 lakh rupees each within two weeks and publish an apology in a national English daily saying that Ahluwalia had not asked for or accepted any money.

Their excuse was that they did not have the money to give Ahluwalia the huge amount of Rs 2 crore.

According to Ahluwalia’s lawyer, the appeal could not be made. According to him, the cop had to deal with shame for almost 22 years and that an apology alone is not enough.

Additionally, he said that Tejpal and Bahal needed to put down a “substantial” amount of money.

When it comes to defamation cases like this one, the bench said that an apology is a big comfort and that it would think about the amount of damages when it hears the appeal.

As a result of the officer’s lawsuit on July 21, 2023, the single court ordered that Rs 2 crore be paid by Tehelka.Com, its owner M/s Buffalo Communications, its owner Tarun Tejpal, and reporters Aniruddha Bahal and Mathew Samuel.

An apology 23 years after the article was published was “not only inadequate but is meaningless,” the judge said, emphasizing that there was no clearer example of seriously hurting the image of an honest Army officer.

Although, the court said the plaintiff could not show that Zee Telefilms Ltd and its employees, who aired the story because they had an agreement with the news site, did anything defamatory.

It was seen that the plaintiff’s reputation was hurt by major accusations of corruption, which could not be properly refuted and could not be fixed.

The news website published an article on March 13, 2001, saying that there was corruption in defense deals involving the import of new defense weapons.

The suit said the story “Operation West End” meant to hurt his reputation by falsely reporting that he had taken a bribe.

As Tejpal and others tried to defend themselves with “truth,” “public good,” and “good faith,” the single judge said there was no worse slander against a trustworthy person than a “false imputation of him having demanded and then accepted a bribe of Rs 50,000.”

There was a Court of Inquiry into the officer’s actions after the report, and even though no wrongdoing was proven, he was given “serious displeasure,” which is like a censure, for his claimed behavior.