The hearing in the INR 1 crore defamation complaint filed by law firm Algo Legal and its founder Sandeep Kapoor against Sequoia Capital and several news organisations was adjourned on Saturday by a Bengaluru court.
Sequoia, HT Media Limited (owner of Hindustan Times), and E Eighteen.com Limited (Money Control) had submitted objections to the litigation, according to City Civil and Sessions Judge MH Annayyaanavar. Twitter’s lawyers want more time to respond.
The court ordered that two Economic Times journalists be served with a summons by email.
Algo Legal’s counsel requested an early hearing date, claiming that Sequoia’s objections show that the investigation into the law firm’s and Kapoor’s conduct has been ongoing for more than 6-7 months with no final findings and may take a long time to complete, while media outlets continue to publish articles on the subject.
Algo Counsel also notified the court that there are claims of unaccounted payments received by Algo from entities like Zilingo, which are included in the objections, although the Founder of Zilingo has publicly said that all payments paid were for services delivered and kosher. As a result, the claims’ very foundations are shaky, and the court should not postpone hearing these cases.
The case has been postponed until June 29.