New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday removed three-year-old restrictions it had placed on publishing accounts of certain sexual harassment allegations made by a few women against well-known venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy.The judgment was passed by a single bench of Justice Jayant Nath, in a defamation suit filed by Murthy against nearly 20 defendants. The venture capitalist sought damages amounting to Rs 2.5 crore.The injuncted materials included a range of articles, social media posts, and journalistic reports containing allegations of sexual harassment against Murthy.They include a LinkedIn post by entrepreneur Pooja Chauhan, a post on IndianCEO.in detailing entrepreneur Iyer’s allegations, and reports by tech websites FactorDaily and YourStory. Defendants in the case also include the organisations that publish Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle as well as journalists (current and former) and executives at SheThePeople, YourStory and FactorDaily.In early 2017, the high court had granted an interim injunction to Murthy which restrained all defendants from “in any manner, directly or indirectly publishing and/or commenting and/or communicating and/or issuing any article, interview and material to the public in any manner whatsoever, containing or referring to the allegations contained in the posts being the subject matter of the suit”.In response to this, some of the defendants had filed applications to lift the temporary gag order.In his verdict, Justice Jayant Nath noted that it would “not be reasonable in the facts and circumstances to fetter the narration of alleged facts and comments of defendants No. 1, 2, 15 and 16 and other defendants” and added that “the said defendants have a right to exercise their right of freedom of speech”.Also read: From the Supreme Court, a Reminder that Justice Was Sacrificed to Save a JudgeThe court noted that prima facie, it cannot be said that the defendants have no case against Murthy or were misusing their freedom of speech to tarnish or defame him. “Further, it cannot be said that the said defendants are behaving in a malicious or mala fide manner,” it said.The high court also rejected the contention that two of the defendants were “disgruntled” as Murthy had rejected their business proposals, calling it a “bald plea”.“If these incidents and claims of the said defendants are in trial proved to be false, the plaintiff would have a right to claim damages,” the judgement noted.Delhi High Court Mahesh Mur… by The Wire on ScribdMurthy responseIn March 2018, Mumbai police had booked Murthy under Sections 354 (sexual harassment) and 509 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code in response to a complaint. The complainant said that in February 2004, when she had met the venture capitalist at a coffee shop, he allegedly touched her inappropriately and kissed her against her will.The criminal proceedings were quashed by the Bombay high court a little over a year later, in September 2019, after the court observed that the delay in filing the FIR 14 years after the offence was not “properly explained”.When asked for a comment by The Wire, a representative for Murthy said that he would be filing an appeal in the Delhi high court over the injunction.“As has been reported earlier, the allegations have already been thrown out of other courts, where the ruling has been in Mr. Murthy’s favour (link). We will be filing an appeal in this matter and look forward to speedy justice,” the representative said in an e-mailed statement.