Damages claim runs against law: Media law expert Timalsena
KATHMANDU, September 3: Media law expert Ram Krishna Timalsena has said that the defamation case filed by chief of Nepal Oil Corporation Gopal Bahadur Khadka against Nepal Republic Media officials and journalists should have been rejected by the court right at the beginning.
Timalsena, former registrar at the Supreme Court, said that since the related provision of the existing Libel and Slander Act, 2016 BS (1959) doesn’t allow for the demanding of such a huge amount of money in damages, the case shouldn’t have been registered. “I don’t know how the claim of such a huge amount of money in damages was included in the case as the law in Nepal doesn’t allow it,” Timalsena said in an interview with Radio Nagarik 96.5 on Saturday. “His demand for damages isn’t in accordance with the law,” he said.
Khadka filed a defamation case against Nagarik daily, which has been exposing embezzlement of millions of rupees in land procurement by NOC. In the case filed at Kathmandu District Court, he has sought Rs 800 million in damages.
KATHMANDU, September 3: Media law expert Ram Krishna Timalsena has said that the defamation case filed by chief of Nepal Oil Corporation Gopal Bahadur Khadka against Nepal Republic Media officials and journalists should have been rejected by the court right at the beginning.Timalsena, former registrar at the Supreme Court, said that since the related provision of the existing Libel and Slander Act, 2016 BS (1959) doesn’t allow for the demanding of such a huge amount of money in damages, the case shouldn’t have been registered. “I don’t know how the claim of such a huge amount of money in damages was included in the case as the law in Nepal doesn’t allow it,” Timalsena said in an interview with Radio Nagarik 96.5 on Saturday. “His demand for damages isn’t in accordance with the law,”