New Delhi, Sept. 19 -- A Delhi court on Thursday set aside a judicial order that had barred several journalists and activists from publishing reports allegedly defaming the Adani group, holding that the restraint was passed without hearing the affected parties. The ruling came from district judge Ashish Aggarwal of Rohini court while hearing a challenge to the earlier order by journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi. The judge noted that the civil judge, who had issued the sweeping injunction, ought to have granted a hearing to the defendants before effectively declaring their published articles defamatory. "The court of civil judge ought to have granted a hearing before passing the order which had the impact of prima facie declaring the articles defamatory," the judge said. The district judge pointed out that such an order could cause irreparable consequences, since even if the defendants were ultimately found not guilty of defamation, content already removed could not be practically restored across platforms. "In my opinion, the impugned order is not sustainable.by passing an ex-parte injunction, Order 39 Rule 3 of the Civil Procedure Code has been disregarded," judge Aggarwal observed. He remanded the plea filed by Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) back to the civil judge who had first passed the injunction, directing that it be heard again on September 26. The journalists were represented by senior advocate Vrinda Grover, while AEL was represented by senior advocates Anurag Ahluwalia and Vijay Aggarwal. Grover argued the injunction was disproportionate and granted without examining whether the articles were defamatory. Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for AEL, countered that the journalists were targeting the corporate group under the guise of reporting....