A third U.S. court has dismissed a $20-million defamation suit filed by the Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC), which claimed that an advertisement in the New York Times maligned its parent party, its President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul.

 

The defamation case arose from a full-page advertisement in the New York Times on October 6, 2007, leveling several charges against Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson's visit to the U.N.

 

The case was "dismissed with prejudice", meaning the matter cannot be tried again, by New Jersey's Middlesex County Judge Nicholas J. Stroumtsos on Wednesday (14^th January). The defendants in the case were Satya Dosapati, Naresh Sharma, Sunanda Thali, Mahatma Gandhi Centre and Hindu Temple International Foundation, and Hindu International Council Against Defamation.

 

Stroumtsos found that last August Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Patricia DelBueno Cleary had "properly dismissed the case" but left the matter for open for re-litigation. Cleary had dismissed the case holding that the INOC was not the proper party and did not have the locus standi to bring a claim of defamation because none of the statements were of or about it.