The
Delhi High Court has ordered removal of social media posts by Congress leaders
Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Ragini Nayak alleging that veteran journalist
Rajat Sharma used "abusive language" during his show on the Lok Sabha
election result day.
The
court said an irreparable loss and injury would be caused to the plaintiff's
reputation if the videos and posts on X were allowed to remain in the public
domain.
Justice Neena Bansal
Krishna said it is prima facie evident from the footage of the TV debate played
in the court that plaintiff Sharma had "barely intervened for a few
seconds and no abusive language was used" against Nayak.
The
social media posts berating the journalist are an "over-sensationalisation",
the court said.
"It
cannot be denied that the citizens have a right to freedom of speech and
expression but there was also a corresponding duty to remain truthful to the
incident. The X posts berating the plaintiff are nothing but an over-sensationalisation
and depiction of facts which are patently false," the court said in its
18-page order passed on Friday and uploaded on its website on Saturday.
The
court said the balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiff as by
making these videos private or injuncting them from being available on public
platforms, no infringement on the rights of defendants will be caused.
However,
the inconvenience that would result from these videos and X posts continuing to
remain in the public domain may not be compensated by damages in future, it
said.
"It
is directed that the X posts/tweets which have not been removed be removed
within seven days by defendants in terms of the Intermediary Guidelines.
"It
is further directed that the videos which are in the public domain be made
private by defendant No.2 (Google India) and (are) not to be put in the public
domain, without the orders of this court," the court stated.
It
also issued summons to the defendants including the three Congress leaders, X
Corp, Google India and Meta Platforms in the lawsuit and listed it for further
hearing on July 11.
Sharma's
counsel had urged the court to grant ex-parte relief by ordering removal of the
alleged offensive posts and videos against him on social media and restraining
the political leaders from making allegations against him.
The
controversy arose after Nayak accused Sharma of abusing her on national
television during a debate on his show on June 4.
Sharma,
the chairman and editor-in-chief of Independent News Service Private Limited
(INDIA TV), was also present in the court during the hearing on Friday.
Sharma's
counsel had said while the debate was happening on the channel on the evening
of June 4, the Congress leaders started tweeting only on June 10 and 11.
He
had contended that a clip of the show was being circulated in which an abuse
had been inserted whereas the original footage does not contain any such
content.
"There
is no abuse. Six days after the live show, they tweet that this anchor has used
(an) abuse against this lady. They held a press conference on June 11. On June
4, she did not say there was any abuse. She did not hear it on that day,"
the senior lawyer had submitted.
The
high court said in its order that while the threshold of public criticism and alleged
defamatory X posts and YouTube videos on intermediary platforms is much higher,
the individual dignity and honour of a person cannot be allowed to be defamed
or disrepute brought to him on the ground of the right to free speech and
expression.
"No harm would be caused to the defendants if the material is
restrained from remaining in public domain till the suit is adjudicated on
merits, while these tweets have a potential of bringing disrepute to the
plaintiff in future with practically no reparation to the damage to his
reputation," it said.