Bombay High Court Sets Aside Order Halting Sale Of Ex Raymond Chief’s Book

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A two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday set aside a single judge’s order stopping the sale, circulation and distribution of industrialist Vijaypat Singhania’s autobiography ‘An Incomplete Life’.

Mr Singhania, 83, former chairperson of the Raymond Group, is embroiled in a legal battle with his estranged son Gautam Singhania and the Raymond Company over the release of the book.

Last week, Justice SP Tavade of the high court had passed an order restraining further sale, distribution and circulation of the book.

On Wednesday, division bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and Abhay Ahuja set aside the order.

The single judge had passed his order under the wrong impression that interim order of the Thane sessions court against the erstwhile publisher Penguin, staying the publication of the book, was to continue while the appeal filed by Raymond was pending, the judges said.

In 2019, Raymond Ltd and its chairman Gautam Singhania had filed suits in the Thane sessions court and a civil court in Mumbai, seeking injunctions against the publication of the book claiming that its contents were defamatory.

In April 2019, the Thane court granted a stay to the release of the book.

The company last week approached the high court claiming that Vijaypat Singhania “surreptitiously” released the 232-page book on October 31 despite the lower court’s injunction.

It sought a direction restraining the present publisher, Macmillan Publishers Pvt Ltd, from further distributing, selling or making available the book.

Raymond’s lawyers Kartik Nayar, Rishab Kumar and Krish Kalra claimed that Vijaypat Singhania and the publishers breached the April 2019 order of the Thane court.

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