SC seeks former Tata Trusts head Venkataramanan's reply on Shapoorji Pallonji's defamation plea

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Thursday sought a response from R Venkataramanan, a former managing trustee of Tata Trusts, on an appeal of Shapoorji Pallonji Group challenging the quashing of its defamation case against him.

"This is nothing but a corporate war," a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta said while issuing a notice to Venkataramanan.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Shapoorji Pallonji Group, said that the defamation complaint filed by the firm was quashed by the Bombay High Court erroneously.

The Bombay High Court had quashed a prosecution order issued by a magistrate court against Venkataramanan in the defamation case.

In October 2018, the magistrate's court at Ballard Pier had issued the process of summoning Venkataramanan after the Shapoorji Pallonji Group filed the criminal defamation case against him.

In the complaint, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which owns 18.6-per cent stake in the Tata Group, had alleged that Venkataramanan had made some comments in a press note which were false and defamatory to the group.

In the press note, Venkataramanan had allegedly stated that in his capacity as a non-executive director of Air Asia India, he had been wrongly named as an accused by the CBI.

The Bombay High Court had said in its March 27 order that there was nothing defamatory in the press note and quashed the process issued against Venkataramanan.

"I am of the view that the words which are used in the press note are not at all defamatory. They are moderate and temperate. They do not invite contempt, ridicule or hatred against the persons mentioned in the press note and much less the complainant," the high court judge had said.

The low-cost carrier AirAsia India is a 51:49 per cent joint venture between Tata Sons and Malaysian carrier AirAsia.

In an FIR registered on May 29, 2018, the CBI named Venkataramanan and other top executives of the AirAsia group, for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with unknown public servants to alter the rules to get early overseas flying rights.

Venkataramanan had resigned from the Tata Trusts after the tax department sent notices to the charity over his inflated salaries and threatened to end its tax-breaks to the country's largest and oldest public charity.