Saturday, September 12, 2009

SC refuses to shift Seby’s case

JAL KHAMBATA
NEW DELHI, SEPT 11

The Supreme Court on Friday refused a petition filed by a Goan NGO blogger for transfer of a Rs 500-crore defamation suit filed against him in the Calcutta High Court by Fomento industries, a mining company of Timblos in Goa.

The petition was withdrawn following the Supreme Court Bench declining the prayer to shift the case to a civil court in Goa. Blogger Sebastiano Rodrigues had come to the Apex Court, alleging harassment by the industrialist by filing the suit far away in Kolkata.
The case had come up before the Bench of Justices Dalbeer Bhandari and B S Chauhan. The industrialist had filed the suit accusing Seby, an environmentalist and tribal welfare activist, of defaming the company in his Internet blog mandgoa.blogspot.com.

Sociedade de Fomento Industrial Private Limited was irked by Seby’s blog attacking it as part of his campaign against the iron ore mining industries of Goa.

The petition had sought transfer of the case to Goa on the ground that both the company and Seby were from Goa and the alleged defamatory writings on the blog pertained to Fomento’s activities in Goa.

The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court does not have original jurisdiction for entertaining the civil suits and hence the plea was made to transfer the case to a civil court in Goa. The Supreme Court, however, did not agree to transfer the case.

Herald, Panaji, September 12, 2009

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