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The Indian Express has sent a legal notice to weekly news magazine Open and Outlook editorial chairman Vinod Mehta for allegedly harming the reputation of the daily, its editor-in-chief and three journalists of the newspaper.

The notice seeks Rs. 500 crore in damages.

Mehta had given an interview to Open in which he criticised a story in The Indian Express over an un-notified movement of army units towards Delhi in mid- January this year.

Mehta indirectly termed the source of the story as "some mischief-maker" and the decision to publish the story a mistake of Himalayan proportions.

Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta refused to comment on the issue.

"I don’t want to comment, talk to our legal director," he said when asked if he believed that Mehta’s comments were intended to defame him.

Reacting to the notice, Mehta said such issues were better settled in a debate rather than in courts. "The Indian Express is entitled to send a legal notice but I was hoping that this type of issue would be settled in a debate rather than in a court of law. However, I have no problem with the legal notice."

Indian Express legal director Vadehi Thakker did not take phone calls despite repeated attempts. The legal notice stated that the article in Open, headlined Mother of All Mistakes, was written "in the guise of an interview" with Mehta so that defamatory imputations and statements could be published "while precluding the necessity of incorporation of the comments and response of those against whom such defamatory imputations and statements were made".

The notice, sent through advocate Poorvi Kamani, alleged that Open and Mehta had "all conspired and defamed my clients" intending to harm their reputations. The notice said ever since the April 19 interview in Open, the attention of Gupta and other journalists had repeatedly been drawn by colleagues, readers and members of the general public towards the interview.

The notice asks Open and Mehta to publish an apology retracting all allegations and to remit Rs. 100 crore each to the newspaper, Gupta and the three journalists as damages within 24 hours. Open has also been asked not to republish any defamatory or false statements against the newspaper.

The newspaper stood by the story and stressed that there was no suggestion of any coup attempt in the news report. The government had denied the story as baseless.

The legal notice quoted extensively from Mehta’s interview to make out a case of a direct attack against the newspaper and its editor.

"It is the job of the mischief-makers to mislead papers, but it is the job of editors to detect the mischief and nip it in the bud," Mehta was quoted in the notice.

The legal notice also attacked Mehta for maligning the reputation of Ratan Tata by publishing his picture on the cover of Outlook magazine in a concentric circle with A. Raja’s photograph in the centre, indicating Tata’s role in the 2G scam.