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. "The Adani group found these articles more than a year later to be defamatory. they have to discharge the burden of showing malice or defamation. It can't be a tsunami order barring journalists without such a finding," she submitted. Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for AEL, countered that the journalists were targeting the corporate group under the guise of reporting. "Investors are withdrawing their shares from the company and losses worth billions of dollars are being caused because of such articles," he argued. A parallel challenge to the same injunction order has also been filed by senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, which was heard separately on Thursday by district judge Sunil Chaudhary. Represented by senior advocate Trideep Pais, Thakurta argued that the restraint was untenable. Judge Chaudhary, while not immediately staying the injunction, observed that such an order could not be passed without first declaring the articles defamatory, which in turn required a full hearing of both sides. Earlier this month, senior civil judge Anuj Kumar Singh passed the interim injunction directing several journalists and activists, including Thakurta, Nair, Dasgupta, Das and Joshi, to remove allegedly unverified and defamatory reports against the Adani group. He ordered social media intermediaries to take down such content within 36 hours....