Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Apr 13: The Karnataka high court on Friday April 13 set aside the temporary injunction order obtained by BJP's Bengaluru South candidate Tejasvi Surya to stop media from reporting anything defamatory against him.
The 28-year-old had approached a lower court and obtained gag order against 49 media outlets, television channels and social media platforms. However, the high court in its ruling advised Surya to approach the Election Commission if any reports against him were defamatory.
Surya got stuck in a political storm soon after BJP announced him as a candidate from Bengaluru South. The seat was held by the late former union minister Ananth Kumar and his wife Tejaswini Ananth Kumar was promised the seat. However, the sudden change of plans by BJP top leaders upset the local party workers.
Also, the controversial posts by Surya on social media over the years caught the media’s eye. After he announced his candidature, social media posts from women alleging Surya had sexual harassed them appeared.
The order on Friday was passed by a division bench which included chief justice of the high court, Justice L Narayana Swamy. The successful challenge to Surya’s gag order was made by the ‘Democratic Reforms Organisation.’
The petitioners who had opposed Surya’s gag order argued that voters had a right to know more about their candidate and that court could not stop the media from such reporting as that would affect the nature of free and fair elections.