Shalinder Kaur JUDGMENT
Shalinder Kaur, J.
1. The Appellant is aggrieved by the impugned order dated 31.03.2017 vide which the Learned Additional District Judge, Shahdara District, Karkardooma, Delhi ("Learned Trial Court") in civil suit bearing number C.S. No. 1985/2016 titled as "M/s GAV Developers Pvt Ltd. vs. The Publishers, The Dainik Jagran Newspapers and Ors." returned the plaint of the Appellant under Order VII Rule 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as "CPC") on an application moved by the Respondents No. 2 to No. 5 herein under Order VII and Rule 11 of CPC seeking rejection of the plaint of the Appellant herein. The Learned Trial Court further held that the Court in Dehradun has the territorial jurisdiction to entertain the civil suit filed by the Appellant herein and the same be filed there. Thus, the Appellant through its duly authorized representative Sh. Rajnish Gupta vide board resolution dated 10.04.2016, has filed the present appeal under Order XLIII Rule 1(a) CPC.
2. For the adjudication of the present appeal, it is pertinent to elucidate the background of the case at hand. The Appellant is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 vide the Certificate of Incorporation No. 55-91824 of 1997-98 on 21.01.1998 with its registered office located in Yojna Vihar, Delhi and is engaged in the business of building and developing residential colonies and other housing projects since 1998 and 2004 in Delhi NCR and Dehradun, Uttarakhand, respectively.
3. During the course of business, the company changed its name from Grah Awas Vikas Private Limited to GAV Developers Private Limited w.e.f. 11.03.2015 vide the Certification of Incorporation dated 11.03.2015.
4. The Respondent No. 1 is a local Hindi Newspaper, Dainik Jagran corporation which has publication in form of print-media in the area of Dehradun, Uttarakhand & stated to also be available to read on internet/public domain and Respondents No. 2 to 5 are the residents and customers of the Green View Apartments, Dehradun (Respondents No. 2 to 5 hereinafter referred to as "Resident Respondents").
5. It is the case of Appellant that since the incorporation of its company, it has built several projects across Delhi NCR as well as in Dehradun & Mussoorie and one such project is "Green View Apartment" in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The Appellant constructed the aforesaid project and stated to have delivered physical possession of the flats in the year 2009-2011 except to a few customers.
6. In May, 2014, the Appellant had begun to develop another project called "Green View Blossom" in the vicinity of the Green View Apartment. It is the case of the Appellant that the Resident Respondents allegedly made illegal demands and when the Appellant did not accede to same, Respondents allegedly with a view to extract money from the Appellant, conspired and published the defamatory news article against the Appellant on 26.09.2014 in the Respondent No. 1's newspaper Dainik Jagran.
7. Thereafter, when the Appellant approached the Respondent No. 1, it was confirmed that the alleged defamatory news published were on the basis of the statements made by the Resident Respondents. The Respondent No. 1 tendered an apology after being apprised by the Appellant with the true facts and assured the same will not be repeated in future.
8. On 10.06.2015, the Respondent No. 1 at the instance of Resident Respondents published an alleged defamatory news article in its newspaper in the terms of print media as well as e-paper, bearing a headline "95 LAKH LEKAR BUILDER NE KIYA KINARA" to disrepute and injure the Appellant's image in the eyes of the public at large as it was read throughout the territory of........