On 11th September, a Lucknow Court registered a complaint against news agency ANI’s Editor Smita Prakash on a petition claiming that the agency circulated false news attributed to the Election Commission of India (ECI). The petition was filed by ex-IAS officer Amitabh Thakur. Judicial Magistrate-III passed the order and the next hearing is scheduled for 26th September. According to a statement issued by Thakur on social media platform X, the court has called him to record his statement.
In its order, the court said it is passing the order without entering into the merits and said, “Heard and perused the complaint and written submissions. At this stage, without entering into the merits of territorial jurisdiction or sufficiency of grounds, the complaint is found to be in order procedurally. In view of the provisions of Chapter XV BNSS, the complaint is liable to be registered as a complaint case…Let this case be registered as a Complaint Case. The Complainant is directed to appear on 26.09.2025 for recording of his statement under oath.”
In his complaint, Thakur claimed that ANI repeatedly attributed statements to the ECI which were not available on its official website or verified social media handles. Thakur argued that this amounted to ANI publishing unverified and misleading reports in the Commission’s name. Notably, news agencies like ANI often publish reports based on statements given by sources (named and unnamed) from different...
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