The Calcutta High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against Republic TV and its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in connection with a comment made by a panellist about West Bengal’s Marwari community during a show on the news channel in 2020, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.

Justice Shampa Dutt (Paul) issued the order on a petition filed by Goswami and ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, which owns Republic TV, seeking the quashing of the case.

The judge said that the offences cited in the first information report, which included defamation, cannot be made out against Goswami or the channel as they had distanced themselves from the remark, and “condemned such opinions expressed on a public platform and have done so on every platform (public) where it was available for viewing”, Bar and Bench reported.

“It is for the said panellist to issue an apology if he desires to do so,” the order added.

The case pertained to the comments made by a person named Subhojit Ghosh, a guest on the Republic TV show, in April 2020 during a live debate on the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Bar and Bench.

Subsequently, a FIR was registered at the Phoolbagan police station in Kolkata based on a complaint filed by a person named Man Mohan Bagri for defamation, promoting enmity between two groups, imputation prejudicial to national integration and criminal conspiracy.