New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed news portal The Wire to take down an alleged defamatory article casting aspersions on Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar in relation to the Bamnoli land acquisition matter.

In an interim order, Justice Sachin Datta granted ad-interim injunction in favour of the chief secretary and also directed the news portal and its reporter concerned to take down the article and the offending tweets.

I have granted an ad-interim injunction. I have directed defendant no. 2 and 2 (The Wire and its reporter) to take down the article and the offending tweets," the judge said while pronouncing the order.

The detailed order is awaited.

On Tuesday, the high court had reserved its order on the officer's plea seeking interim relief in the defamation suit.

The defamation suit was filed in relation to a news article on November 9 which alleged links of the chief secretary's son to the beneficiary's family.

The 19-acre land in question was acquired by the National Highways Authority of India in 2018 for the construction of the Dwarka Expressway.

Kumar, in his plea, sought to take down the article as well as a direction to restrain the news portal and the reporter from publishing any further defamatory articles against him.

His counsel had said the article was "pre-planned" in order to "activate" people against him and to "please some people

The counsel for the news portal had said the intention behind the article, which only raised a few questions, was not to defame Kumar in any manner.

The suit said that a legal notice was also sent by the chief secretary to the portal and the reporter on November 13, claiming that the contents of the article are ex-facie misleading and per se defamatory.

According to reports, the price of the land was increased from₹41.52 crore to₹353.79 crore in May and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs initiated action against South West Delhi District Magistrate Hemant Kumar for approving the enhanced compensation.