Hyperlinking A Defamatory Article: Defamation Or Not?

In a recent judgment¹, the Delhi High Court ("Court") has examined whether hyperlinking to alleged defamatory content would amount to republication and therefore give rise to a fresh action for defamation under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Background

A defamation suit was instituted by Ms. Ruchi Kalra, the co-founder of unicorn start-up OFB Tech Private Limited ("OFB"), seeking injunction against an online magazine named 'The Morning Context' owned by Slowform Media Private Limited ("Morning Context") for publication of an allegedly defamatory article. This was the second defamation suit filed by OFB against the Morning Context seeking for an article titled "The work culture Of Business doesn't like to talk about" published on May 17, 2023 (the "Original Article") to be taken down/removed. The Original Article was written by the Morning Context's editor Ms. Harveen Ahluwalia. The Original Article was thereafter hyperlinked in a subsequent