Overview
- The court dismissed the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust’s interim plea on Tuesday and directed the trust to pay HDFC Bank Rs 5 lakh as costs within six weeks.
- Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan found HDFC Bank’s press statements were prima facie factually accurate and therefore not defamatory on the record before the court.
- The ruling arose from a Rs 1,000 crore defamation suit brought by the trust claiming a sustained smear campaign; the main suit and parallel recovery proceedings remain live in multiple forums.
- The judge criticized repeated filings and public campaigns by the trustees as part of a long sequence of measures that have sought to stall the bank’s recovery efforts.
- The decision protects a bank’s ability to publicly clarify loan‑recovery steps and means effective recovery and final liability will be resolved later through the ongoing DRT and trial processes.