Bloomberg has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging the directive instructing it to take down an article that alleged the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had uncovered accounting irregularities amounting to nearly US $240 million at Zee Entertainment.

Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar raised the matter on Wednesday before a Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, requesting anThe article titled "India Regulator Uncovers $241 Million Accounting Issue at Zee" was published by Bloomberg on February 21, 2024. The story reported that SEBI had identified "a discrepancy of over $240 million in the financial records of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd."
 urgent listing of the case.

The Court granted the request and scheduled the hearing for Thursday, (March 7). Nayar informed the Court that the order issued by the trial court in Zee's defamation case lacked justification, emphasizing that the district judge had mandated the removal of the news article within a week.

Citing sources, Bloomberg reported that the market regulator alleged a discrepancy of over $241 million in Zee Entertainment's accounts, with no proper transaction history provided for the amount.

Subsequently, Zee Entertainment filed a defamation lawsuit against Bloomberg and its journalists, Anto Antony, Saikat Das, and Preeti Singh. Zee contended that the article was defamatory and emphasized that SEBI had not made any findings against the company. It was argued that the article implied significant financial irregularities had been uncovered by SEBI, despite no such findings being disclosed.

Zee Entertainment argued that SEBI had issued an interim order on June 12, 2023, followed by a confirmatory order on August 14, 2023, against one individual promoter and one key managerial personnel (KMP). These orders relieved them from holding any key managerial positions in listed companies or their subsidiaries.

It was highlighted that Zee Entertainment had not been served any notice by SEBI regarding the proceedings mentioned above.

On March 1, a Delhi court issued an ex parte order instructing Bloomberg to remove the news report alleging that SEBI had discovered accounting irregularities exceeding US $240 million at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited.