New Delhi, Nov. 7 -- Drawing a distinction between restraining specific allegedly defamatory material and stopping an entire published work, the Delhi High Court has held that a pre-trial injunction against a book cannot extend beyond the passages found, at the interim stage, to warrant such protection.

In a significant ruling for authors and publishers, the High Court modified a blanket restraint imposed on "Yes Man: The Untold Story of Rana Kapoor", authored by Pavan Chand Lall and published by HarperCollins, allowing the remaining portions of the book to remain outside the scope of the injunction.

Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar held that the restraint would operate only against four specific passages identified in the trial cour...