The Kathmandu District Court has dismissed the application filed by Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) Chairman Santosh Narayan Shrestha seeking an injunction against two media outlets.
A bench of District Judge Shyam Bihari Maurya dismissed Shrestha’s application on Thursday, said Bigyan Adhikari, editor of Bizmandu.
"Santosh Narayan Shrestha’s application for an injunction has been dismissed," Adhikari told Setopati. "Further details of the order have not yet been received."
With this court order, Bizmandu and Nepal Khabar will no longer be required to remove the previously published news reports related to Shrestha and Sebon.
Shrestha had moved the court, claiming that the news reports published in Nepal Khabar and Bizmandu had damaged his reputation.
Following a unilateral hearing on June 10, Judge Pitambar Sharma’s bench had issued a short-term interim order directing the two news sites to remove the published reports and refrain from further coverage of the matter.
However, after Judge Maurya’s bench dismissed the application itself, the earlier interim order has automatically become void. The hearing on whether to continue the previous order lasted two days—Wednesday and Thursday.
The court’s earlier order, which demanded the removal of already published news, had drawn widespread criticism. Media organizations, including the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), had expressed concern, stating that the order had violated the fundamental principles of press freedom.
