The Delhi High Court on Thursday reinstated a ban on the publication of a book about yoga guru Ramdev that a local court had lifted in April. Ramdev had alleged that the book, Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev, was “extremely defamatory”, and “infringed his right to privacy”.
The book was published on July 29 last year. Justice RK Gauba restored the interim order the court of an additional civil judge had passed on August 4 banning the book, The Indian Express reported.
On April 28 this year, the local court had lifted the ban. Subsequently, the yoga guru filed an appeal in the High Court.
Ramdev’s advocate Dayan Krishnan said the local court’s order allowed the book’s author Priyanka Pathak-Narain and publisher M/s Juggernaut Books to “freely violate the yoga guru’s fundamental right to privacy and his reputation without any repercussions”. “Therefore, the order deserves to be set aside and the Additional Civil Judge’s directive resorted,” he argued.
“My prayer is to stop the circulation of the book. The assumption of the appellate judge was contrary to the law,” Krishnan added.
The author’s lawyer said that details of the persons she had interviewed are provided at the end of the book. The counsel claimed that Pathak-Narain had interviewed Ramdev too.
M/s Juggernaut Books said that extracts of the book had been in public domain since 2007, but Ramdev had never objected to it. However, the court asked the publisher to file a detailed reply to the yoga guru’s plea, The Times of India reported.
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