Binod Chaudhary in the Court again; Slaughtering the pen and news of Janaaastha is the aim

Astha Publication’s Janaaastha Weekly and Janaaastha.com have been exposing many irregularities of Dollar billionaire Binod Chaudhary and various questionable business activities of Chaudhary Group (CG), the business group that he has been leading as a President, along with facts, official documents and evidences. To prevent such news, he has received a court order dated 23 September 2022 as appealed by him in Patan High Court.

Court sources informed that the single bench of Justice Balendra Rupakheti (bench no. 5) gave the order in a case where an injunction was sought to stop the news. On the same evening, Chaudhary Group issued a notice for the news portals to publish the news citing the order of the court.

While revealing the misdeeds of various business houses, Janaaastha has only exposed both the showing and chewing teeth of Chaudhary and CG Group. In the interim order said to have been issued by the High Court on 23 September, the deadline for the defamation case filed by Chaudhary on 29 August  in the District Court, Lalitpur was given to the opponent only a few days ago. The order of the High Court, which has given a general date on 13 October has taken aback the country’s communication and legal sector because the order has been issued one-sidedly listening to the argument of the applicant and ignoring the reference to the written answer registered by Janaaastha on the same day of the order.

“Any news related to a particular person or organization cannot be ordered to be written forever.”

As we all know, Binod Chaudhary is not only a businessman, but also a regular Member of Parliament. He frequently states with pride that he is on the list of the world’s richest dollar billionaires. However, the issues and news raised about him by Janaaastha are not related only within Chaudhary’s personal life. As he is also holding an honorable position enjoying state benefits, his activities are always closely observed by the society. However, the unique interim order of the High Court to not publish or broadcast anything on the same subject in order to affect the case pending in the lower court has received feedback that the freedom of the press guaranteed by the Constitution of Nepal 2072 may be curtailed.

The order preventing the press sector to publish or broadcast the news about any business group or its owner’s illegal activities has shocked many people. It is clear that Janaaastha has brought out the misdeeds from him and his company in other matters, aside from the issue raised by him in the case filed by him in the district court of Lalitpur. There is no doubt that this process will continue in the future because Janaaastha Publications will never stand for the martyrdom of freedom of the press. Its journalists have been imprisoned several times while dutifully advocating for press freedom.

“Closing the mouth of the mass media may lead to the arbitrary. The media is the main basis for the revelation of corruption and many scandalous incidents from the state apparatus to the private sector. Assassination the media only boosts the bully’s morale.”

The responsible officials of the media sector regard it as a misfortune that the respected court has been used knowingly or unknowingly in Chaudhary’s latest attempt to stop his mischiefs from being exposed. Roshan Puri, General Secretary of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, said that the order given by the High Court of Patan to Janaaastha not to publish more news about the dollar billionaire with evidence does not seem to follow the spirit and essence of the Constitution. He said that only the order given by the court within the spirit and essence of the Constitution should be upheld by all parties.

“The orders given by the Court must respect the complete freedom of the press guaranteed by the Constitution. There should be no curtailment of complete freedom of the press”. This is what Puri stated. A party who is not satisfied with the news written about any person or organization should first contact the relevant media, after that, take the grievance to the Press Council and finally to the court. But in this case, this way has been blocked.

However, if the court orders not to write any news about anyone, the rights given by the constitution will be thwarted. And General Secretary Puri is surprised by such order. According to Puri the trend of seeking an interim order from the court immediately after the publication or broadcast of the news of mischief committed by someone is considered to promote dangerous intent, it is setting a wrong precedent, and the devourers will start lining up to cover up the misdeeds.

On the other hand, the former president of Nepal Bar Association, Prem Bahadur Khadka, has also indicated the interim order issued by the Patan High Court to ban the new of Janaaastha publication as ‘wrong’. Khadka says that any order against freedom of the press and the spirit of the constitution will be automatically revoked.

 “Closing the mouth of the mass media may lead to the arbitrary. The media is the main basis for the revelation of corruption and many scandalous incidents from the state apparatus to the private sector. Assassination the media only boosts the bully’s morale.”

The opposition party has not been engaged in the discussion on the writ filed by Chaudhary in the High Court.  While even the case filed by him and his CG Group in the District Court earlier against Janaaastha has not been debated so far. But press and legal experts opine that the trend of filing a case in the lower court and then going to the higher court to get an interim order is dangerous.

Regarding this strange interim order, Advocate Madhav Basnet has stated it as “wrong” since the order has been issued for one specific topic but it restricts in broadcasting and publishing of any news about one person or the company as a whole. According to him, if there is a possibility that it will affect a matter related to a criminal offense, the court can issue a ‘gag order’. A gag order is an order made by a court to stop planned publicity by the media during the investigation of a crime-related matter. However, advocate Basnet says that it is not possible to give an order not to write any news related to a particular person or organization forever.

Despite being legal advisors of the group, senior advocates Shambhu Thapa and Meghraj Pokharel are said to have rejected the request made by Chaudhary and his group to argue the case against Janaaastha . According to court sources, advocates Rajkumar Ghimire and Bipin Subedi argued on behalf of Chaudhary in the case.

Chaudhary’s strategy of filing a defamation case in the District Court and furtively seeking an interim order from the High Court to stop the publication and broadcasting of news has further confirmed his previous wrongdoings. Prior to this, a joint bench of two judges of the Patan High Court issued order to disclose the source of the news. The Press Council intervened the order of Justice Prakash Dhungana and Neeta Gautam Dixit to three news portals including Muldhar News.com for disclosing the source of news.

A former judge has said about this, “Such an order is against the freedom of the press.” The defendant should go to the court immediately to cancel this order.” He is of the view that the right to freedom of expression granted by the constitution will not be stopped by the order of injunction given against the freedom of the press without setting the date of the next discussion of the case.