The Supreme Court on Monday vacated its interim stay on the proceedings relating to the defamation suits filed against the publishers of Outlook magazine in connection with the Rs 16,000-crores Scorpene submarine deal.
A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and P P Naolekar also allowed the plea of the publishing house plea for transfer of one of the defamation suits pending before the Calcutta high court to Delhi on the ground that four other related petitions are pending before the Delhi high court.
The transfer plea related to a libel suit filed by a Canadian woman Gwendolyn Berger, whose name figured in the investigations conducted by the authorities after the magazine claimed that the deal was shady.
Counsel Anup Bhambhani, appearing for the petitioners, Outlook Publishing, its editor-in-chief Vinod Mehta and Correspondent Saikat Datta -- sought transfer of the petition on the ground that it was quite inconvenient for the parties to fight the case in the Calcutta high court.
According to him, there was a common question to be decided in all the suits and it was "extremely inconvenient and onerous" for all of them to defend the suit before the Calcutta high court in view of the pendency of four connected suits before the Delhi high court.
Besides, it would be also convenient for Berger to fight the matter in Delhi as she was based in France and Canada and her advocate was based in the capital, the counsel stated, adding neither Berger nor the petitioners reside or work in Calcutta.
