Delhi HC dismisses contempt plea against Republic in ‘Nation wants to know’ case

In a big win for Republic Media Network and Arnab Goswami, the Delhi High Court today dismissed a contempt plea filed by the Bennett Coleman Group. In a big defeat to the Times Group, the Delhi High Court refused to pass a contempt order against Republic's usage of Arnab Goswami's tagline ‘Nation Wants to Know’.

Republic has defeated Times Group's attempt to stop it from using the iconic phrase by Arnab Goswami: The development defeats the attempt of the Times Group to stop Arnab Goswami from using his iconic phrase “Nation Wants to Know” on Republic.

The Court in clear terms held that there is no case of contempt since Republic TV had, prima facie, used the tagline in permissible limits as mentioned in the earlier order dated 23 October 2020.

Key observation by Court in 2020: In a key observation in the earlier order, the Delhi High Court said, “Regarding the tagline 'Nation Wants to Know' no interim order is passed at this stage in favour of the plaintiff. As submitted by the learned counsel for the plaintiff, defendant No. 2 (Arnab) is free to use the same as part of his speech/ presentation of any news channel, etc..”

Complete loss of face for Time Group: The hard-hitting observations of the Delhi High Court in favour of Republic Media Network left the Times Group, which has been fuming in the courts about Arnab's usage of the phrase, red-faced. In fact, in view of the observations made by the court, the Times Group requested to withdraw its application and end the matter.

The victory in the courts of law is a huge vindication for Republic and Arnab who have maintained that the phrase cannot belong to a commercial entity but to all people of India.