Congress party leaders Ragini Nayak, Jairam Ramesh, and Pawan Khera have been ordered by the Delhi High Court to remove their social media posts and recordings. They claim that journalist Rajat Sharma harassed and used derogatory language against Nayak while he was on live television.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna stated that the Congress leaders had over-sensitized the incident and that the facts had been misrepresented in an ex parte interim ruling that was passed on Friday.
The Court determined that allowing the information to stay on social media networks would cause Sharma irreversible injury.
“The X posts (Twitter posts) criticizing Sharma, the plaintiff, are nothing more than an exaggerated and misleading portrayal of facts. In addition to harming the plaintiff’s reputation, as he has claimed, the prima facie dissemination of such X Posts has the ongoing risk of being utilized against the plaintiff at any point in the future. Due to the immediate risk of future misuse, the videos—which initially present the plaintiff in a way that might not be accurate—may not be allowed to remain in the public domain until the lawsuit is resolved, the court ruled.
According to Justice Krishna, there would be no infringement on the Congress leaders’ right to free speech or expression if these tapes were made private or if they were ordered to remain off public platforms.
“However, the inconvenience that would result from these videos and X posts/Tweets etc, continuing to remain in public domain, has the potential to cause an inconvenience which may not be possible to be reparated or compensated by damages or otherwise, in future,” the Court stated.
Thus, it arranged,
Following the above-discussed debate, it is ordered that the defendants remove the X Posts/Tweets (URLs appended as “Annexure-1″) that have not yet been removed within seven days in accordance with the Intermediary Guidelines. Furthermore, defendant No. 2 is directed to turn over the public domain videos to private and to refrain from re-releasing them into the public domain without court orders.”
The posts must be taken down in one week.
In connection with Sharma’s lawsuit, the court also summoned Congress officials and scheduled a follow-up hearing for July 11.
Sharma filed a defamation lawsuit against Nayak, Khera, and Ramesh, requesting ₹100 crore in compensation.
On the day of the Lok Sabha election results, a number of social media accounts shared a video clip from an argument on Sharma’s news channel, India TV, alleging that Sharma had used derogatory language against Congress spokesman Ragini Nayak.
Nayak shared the video on X on June 10 and said that Sharma could be heard disparaging her in it. After that, she also reported Sharma to the police.
Subsequently, on June 11, Sharma claimed that the media wing of the Congress party had carried out a slanderous campaign alleging that he had used profanity and that there was a plot.
He claimed that India TV issued a warning to the Congress communication department, threatening to sue them for defamation if they continued to disseminate lies.
“The purpose of the Congress spokesperson’s visit was to incite me,” Sharma stated during the June 11 program.
He went on to say that in spite of this warning, the Congress media unit persisted in slandering him, which is why he filed a lawsuit.
Then, Sharma’s legal representative issued a warning to Nayak and Congressmen Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera not to make any false accusations in a message that was uploaded on India TV’s official X account.
“We have observed your social media posts in which you claim that Mr. Sharma has used derogatory language when speaking on the radio. The accusations that you have made in your posts are wholly unfounded and have no validity at all. They are obviously bogus news, malicious, and slanderous. You have unjustly accused a well-known figure, so flagrantly transgressing all bounds of public decency. In a statement shared on India TV’s X account, Sharma’s attorney stated, “We are taking legal advice on this before taking further action.”
Rajat Sharma was represented by Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, who was briefed by Sudeep Chatterjee, Rohan Swarup, Kunal Vats, and Sanyam Suri of Singh & Singh Law Firm.
Case Name – RAJAT SHARMA vs X CORP, (FORMERLY TWITTER)
NAME – KARUBAKI MOHANTY, B.A.LLB, COLLEGE – SOA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF LAW, BHUBANESWAR, INTER UNDER LEGAL VIDHIYA
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