Interim injunctions must meet the triple test: prima facie case, balance of convenience, and irreparable loss; ex-parte orders are justified in defamation cases where urgent protection is needed.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. D. Das, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. M. Sarma, learned counsel for the appellants and Mr. U. Hazarika & Mr. J. Roy, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. R. Hazarika, learned counsel for the respondent.

2. As agreed by learned counsel for both the parties, it is proposed to dispose of FAO No. 31/2024 along with the I.A.(C) No. 2175/2024, by this common judgment and order.

3. This appeal, under Order XLIII Rule 1(r) read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure (C.P.C.), is directed against the impugned ex-parte interim order dated 19.04.2024, passed by the learned Civil Judge (Senior Division) No. 3, Kamrup (M) at Guwahati in Misc. (J) Case No. 362/2024, arising out of Title Suit No. 204/2024.

4. It is to be noted here that vide impugned ex-parte interim order, dated 19.04.2024, the learned Civil Judge (Senior Division) No. 3, Kamrup (M) at Guwahati had directed the opposite parties/defendants, their agents, representative, assigns or any other person related to them from posting, publishing or circulating any posts that amounts to disparagement of services of petitioner/plaintiff as well as immediately take down the impugned articles dated 12.03.2024, 14.03.2024 & 18.03.2024, or any other similar article or any other posts, write up or material concerning or in relation to these impugned articles against the petitioner till next date fixed.

Background Facts:-

5. The background facts, leading to filing of the present appeal, are adumbrated herein below:-

“The respondent/opposite party as plaintiff has instituted a title suit, being Title Suit No. 204/2024, with a prayer for permanent and mandatory injuction and damages on account of defamation and disparagement, against the defendants, i.e. the present appellants. The contention of the respondent before the learned trial court is that it is a registered company which deal with imparting quality education in order to help students secure admissions in various premier institutes, like Indian Institute of Technology, across India especially for training students for competitive examinations and it has 78 numbers of centre all over India and also has centers in Doha and Bahrain, which has nearly sixty thousand students with approximately three thousand employees. It also provides online classes, test papers etc. for the students of Assam and North East at present. Whereas, the defendants/appellants deal with providing news in text and through video analysis, data and tools on investing across diverse asset classes, personal finance, the business sector and the economy as well as operate multiple social media pages being Facebook, LinkdIn, X (erstwhile Twitter) etc.

The defendants/appellants had published series of articles dated 12.03.2024, 14.03.2024 & 18.03.2024. The respondent on 12.03.2024, received an email at 7:38 AM regarding an article to be published on appellant’s platform, titled:

"FIITJEE holds employee salaries for second month in a row, calls it a 'wake-up call' to make them work harder."

It is stated that appellant No.2, in the said email also requested for clarification on 13 points of queries by 10 A.M. on the same day, on the subject matter of the said mail. In the Article dated 12th March, 2024, the appellants also made a reference to respondent's competitors, such as Allen, Aakash, Physics Wallah and Unacademy referring to them as new- age edtech and use their names with # as "#Physics Wallah" and "#Unacademy, which gives an inference that these articles are motivated. Thereafter, on 14th March 2024, two more articles were published, intensifying the attack on them. The first, at 10:42 AM, questioned the salary issue, while the second, at 5:25 PM, criticized respondent's stance:- "Brazenly wrong! FIITJEE founder's 'salary is not a right' email not legally sound, say experts" And the second one published on 14th January, 2024 at 05.25 pm titled; "FIITJEE eS lSyjh ekaxuk xyr gS] QkamMj us,slk fn;k tokc fd deZpkjh deZpkfj;ks dk fny