Leftist propaganda website The Wire and journalist Rohini Singh has decided to face trial in a defamation case filed by Jay Shah, son of Home Minister Amit Shah. The Wire and Rohini Singh today requested the Supreme Court to withdraw their petition seeking to quash the criminal defamation case against them, which was accepted by the court.

Wire and Rohini Singh seeks withdraw appeal in SC. Says will face trial. Justice Arun Mishra says Bench wants to hear issue on how a short notice was given to Jay Shah by Wire. “We want to decide and then parties withdraw” Court eventually allows withdrawal. — Bar & Bench (@barandbench) August 27, 2019

The case relates to an article written by Rohini Singh and published by The Wire alleging impropriety in business dealings of Jay Shah. Their article, which was riddled with glaring loopholes and inaccuracy, was decimated by us. Subsequently, The Wire had selectively altered its story, but the shaky ground on which the story stood remained as it was.

In response to the shoddy story, Jay Shah had slapped ‘The Wire’ with a ₹100 crore defamation case against them in a Gujarat court. Subsequently, the Gujarat High Court had issued a gag order on The Wire, preventing it from publishing anything on the matter. The High Court had observed that Jay Shah has a prima facie case against the publication.

After the Gujarat High Court had rejected a petition by The Wire to dismiss the defamation against them, they had approached the Supreme Court requesting the same. The apex court had stayed the defamation proceedings in the trial court while it heard the plea. But during a hearing on the plea at the Supreme Court, the publication decided to change track and requested to withdraw the petition, saying they will face the trial in the criminal defamation case.

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Justice Arun Mishra allowed the request and said that trial will have to be completed by six months. But Wire lawyer Kapil Sibal objected to it, saying it is not a special matter, he argued that even the SC kept the case pending for a long time. On this, the judge removed the six-month limit, but still said that the trial should be completed as soon as possible.

The court also said that they want to know how a short notice was given to Jay Shah by Wire.