The Delhi High Court has sought the response of various media houses on a Rs 100 crore defamation suit by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy over alleged derogatory news reports linking him to the indictment proceedings against Adani Group in the US.

Justice Subramonium Prasad issued summons to the media houses and their editors and search engine Google while asking them to file written statements in response to the suit.

"Let the plaint be registered as a suit. Issue summons," the court said in its December 9 order.

The judge also issued notice on Reddy's application seeking an interim relief and made it clear that any publication made after December 9 would be after being put to notice by court and have its own consequences.

The court posted the matter on December 16.

Reddy sought the court's direction to the media houses to take down the publications mentioned by him in the suit.

Reddy, the president of YSR Congress Party, also sought damages of Rs 100 crore from the defendant media houses for the alleged defamation caused to him due to the publication of the news reports.

It was the plaintiff's case that the statements in the articles or tweets were primarily based on and only referred to proceedings purportedly initiated in the US and he had not received any notice on it.

He said neither was he indicted in the proceedings nor made a party in any of the proceedings.

"... therefore the publications against the plaintiff are without any basis and have been made by the defendants recklessly without ascertaining the truth and having scant regard to the truth," said the suit.

It said false, derogatory, scandalous, illegal, malicious and defamatory statements were made by the media houses against him in the publications and Google was used for spreading and intensifying the alleged defamatory content.

On the interim application, Reddy's counsel said he had served as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and had a reputation to protect.

He said there were MPs belonging to the political party and the plaintiff was its president and these imputations had brought down his image in the society.

Adani group founder and chairman Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar have been accused of paying USD 265 million (Rs 2,200 crore) in bribes to unidentified officials of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha governments to buy expensive solar power, potentially earning more than USD 2 billion profit over 20 years.

Adani group has denied all charges as baseless and vowed to pursue the legal recourse.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.