Supreme Court Stays Defamation Case Against Aaj Tak Filed by Gopal Kanda
The Supreme Court has stayed the defamation case filed by former Haryana MLA and businessman Gopal Goyal Kanda against news channel Aaj Tak, which he claimed had wrongly linked him to the death of actor and BJP leader Sonali Phogat in 2022.
A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih issued notice to TV Today Network, the parent company of Aaj Tak, and ordered that all proceedings before the trial magistrate be put on hold until further orders.
The dispute began in 2020 when Kanda sent legal notices to several media houses, alleging that their coverage damaged his reputation. In December 2022, he filed a police complaint in Gurugram against ten news channels — including Aaj Tak and Lallantop — accusing them of defamation.
Following his complaint, a Magistrate directed the police to register a non-cognizable report (NCR) and investigate under Section 155(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The police later filed a chargesheet under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in May 2024.
Aaj Tak challenged these proceedings before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, arguing that criminal defamation cases cannot be investigated by police but only taken up directly by a court through a complaint from the aggrieved person, as per Section 199 of the CrPC. However, the High Court dismissed their plea on August 6, 2025, stating that the magistrate had acted within his jurisdiction.
TV Today then approached the Supreme Court, contending that allowing police to decide what content is defamatory violates the channel’s freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
After hearing Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, the top court stayed the trial court proceedings and granted interim protection to the channel until the next hearing.
