Mumbai: A day after passing an order adjourning a nine-year-old defamation suit to 2046 and declining to grant priority on the ground that the plaintiffs are senior citizens, Justice Jitendra Jain of the Bombay High Court, on April 29, 2026, modified the order pursuant to a mentioning made by counsel for the plaintiffs.
The modification order was passed in Suit No. 7 of 2017, titled Tarinibahen Desai & Anr. v. Kilkilraj Bhansali & Ors., before the Court’s Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction.
The Court directed that lines 4 and 5 of paragraph 2 of the order dated April 28, 2026, be deleted. These lines contained the observation that Plaintiff No. 1, who is close to 90 years of age, insisted on pursuing the defamation suit, followed by the statement: “I do not wish to state anything further except that this matter should not be taken up for the next 20 years.”
The Court further directed that paragraph 3 of the April 28 order—which had stated that the matter be listed after 2046 and expressly directed that no priority be granted on the ground that the petitioners are senior citizens or super senior citizens—be entirely replaced with the following: “List this matter on 15 July 2026 for further consideration.”
The Court also directed that the original order dated April 28, 2026, be corrected and that the corrected order be uploaded on the Court’s website. It further directed that the modification order dated April 29, 2026, be read together with the original order dated April 28, 2026.
The matter was not on board on April 29, 2026. It was taken up upon a mentioning made by Mr. Swaraj Jadhav, counsel for the plaintiffs, and was placed on the production board for the purpose of speaking to the minutes of the order dated April 28, 2026.
The modification does not affect paragraph 1 of the April 28 order, which contains the Court’s observation that this is “one of the matters where the ego fight between the parties at the fag end of their lives clogs the system, preventing the Court from taking up matters that truly require priority.” This observation, along with the Court’s prima facie doubt regarding the matter and its characterisation as an ego-driven dispute, remains part of the record.
The earlier portion of paragraph 2, recording that the Court had, on an earlier occasion, suggested that the suit could be resolved by tendering an unconditional apology, also remains unaffected.
The net effect of the modification is that the matter, which had been adjourned to 2046 by the April 28 order, is now listed for hearing on July 15, 2026.
Case Details:
- Court: High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction
- Case Title: Tarinibahen Desai & Anr. v. Kilkilraj Bhansali & Ors.
- Suit No.: 7 of 2017
- Bench: Justice Jitendra Jain
- Date of Modification Order: April 29, 2026
- Original Order Date: April 28, 2026
- Next Date: July 15, 2026
- Appearances: Mr. Swaraj Jadhav a/w Ms. Sanskruti Yagnik for the Plaintiffs; Mr. Pushkraj Deshpande a/w Ms. Anushtha Rathod i/b ALMT Legal for Defendant Nos. 1 to 4, 6 & 7; Mr. Nilesh Parte for Defendant No. 5
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