New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS): Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka on Thursday agreed before the Delhi High Court to take down social media posts in which a fake statement was allegedly attributed to BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was hearing a defamation suit filed by Bhatia seeking Rs 2 crore in damages against CJP, its founder Abhijit Dipke, Das and Ranka over the allegedly defamatory posts.
During the hearing, the counsel appearing for Das said that the impugned tweets would be taken down, while counsel for Ranka stated that the tweet in question had already been removed and the reposted tweet would also be taken down.
The High Court recorded the undertakings and directed that the posts be removed within 24 hours. It also issued summons to Das, Ranka, Dipke and CJP in the defamation suit and directed the defendants to file their responses.
Bhatia had moved the Delhi High Court alleging that the defendants had falsely attributed remarks to him in an AI-generated graphic concerning Swatantra Bhardwaj, who is accused of assaulting the father of a minor protestor.
According to the suit, the graphic falsely portrayed Bhatia as having called Bhardwaj a “dimagi naxali” and “jaatiwaadi”.
Bhatia contended that the posts did not merely criticise or disagree with any statement actually made by him, but falsely represented to the public that he had made remarks which he had never made.
Earlier during the hearing, Justice Gedela orally suggested to Das and Ranka to take instructions on voluntarily taking down the posts. The judge also observed that there are different ways of protesting and questioned whether the defendants needed to go to such an extent.
“You are young. You may have your own concerns. We have also gone through that age,” the High Court remarked, adding that Bhatia, too, had gone through the same phase.
Bhatia submitted that he was a law-abiding citizen, while the other side had allegedly used a manipulated picture and a channel’s logo to give credibility to the content. He also said that even after the filing of the suit, there continued to be an “ecosystem” around such posts and questioned where the remorse was.
Bhatia pressed for a dynamic injunction, submitting that the matter was serious as a fake picture was being used to connect his name with a person who had been arrested.
However, the High Court said that a dynamic injunction could not be granted at this stage without hearing the other side, observing that the matter was not an Intellectual Property dispute.
Bhatia also sought directions to social media platforms to remove the allegedly manipulated content. At this, Justice Gedela asked whether he had approached Meta, observing that there were rules provided for removal of such content and that he could approach the High Court if the platforms failed to act.
Meta’s counsel submitted that the plaint contained only one URL pertaining to a newspaper report on the incident and said the platform could not proactively censor content.
The Delhi High Court, thereafter, permitted Bhatia to approach X and Meta if similar or identical posts were published in future.
“Plaintiff is permitted to approach X and Meta in case similar or identical posts or tweets appear. Platforms may consider the same and take appropriate action. In case there is impediment, both platforms are at liberty to tell Plaintiff who may take appropriate steps,” Justice Gedela said.
The judge also directed X to place on record the Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) details of the concerned accounts within three weeks.
Bhatia had earlier given Das 24 hours to delete the disputed post and issue an unconditional apology. Das subsequently deleted the post and clarified that the graphic was AI-generated, while Ranka had allegedly amplified it by reposting the graphic.
