The Delhi high court on Thursday took a dim view of posts made by Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) spokesperson Saurav Das, in which he claimed that BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia had called Swatantra Bhardwaj a “dimagi naxal”, following which Das and the party’s co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka undertook to take down the posts within 24 hours.
A bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that making allegations without proper verification is “not correct”. The judge added that there are different ways of protesting and that expressions may need to be put across in a more articulate manner.
“There are different ways of protesting. Do you really need to go to this? You are all youngsters; you may want to express so many things. But attacking certain things without verifying may not be correct. There is a lot of anxiety around nowadays. You are youth and you have the right to express. But sometimes expressions may need to be put in a more articulate manner. There are other ways of handling it. You are youngsters, and you have a long way to go. Why do you want to spend time in courts?” the judge said to Das’s lawyer.
The undertaking by Das and Ranka came as the court heard a defamation suit filed by Bhatia. Bhatia’s suit, which also names CJP founder Abhijit Dipke and co convenor Ashutosh Ranka was filed after Das shared an AI-generated graphic on X alleging that Bhatia had called Bhardwaj a “dimagi naxal on September 5.
{{/usCountry}}The undertaking by Das and Ranka came as the court heard a defamation suit filed by Bhatia. Bhatia’s suit, which also names CJP founder Abhijit Dipke and co convenor Ashutosh Ranka was filed after Das shared an AI-generated graphic on X alleging that Bhatia had called Bhardwaj a “dimagi naxal on September 5.
{{/usCountry}}Das later deleted the post after Bhatia gave him 24 hours to remove it and issue an unconditional apology. However, Das clarified on X that the graphic was AI-generated and questioned Bhatia on whether he “disagreed” with the statement attributed to him.
The court, during the hearing however, declined to immediately restrain Das, Ranka from posting further content, in view of their undertaking but asked Meta and X to take down identical posts in future if the same is flagged by Bhatia. The court however issued summons in the defamation suit. The court sought response from Das, Ranka and the party’s founder Abhijit Dipke. Dipke was represented by advocate Nakul Gandhi.
“Are we not going to hear them? In the meantime, we are asking them to take down. We have told them. They have said they will take down. What else? Why would they post is the question? You can come back. Why are you not having faith? lot of people say a lot of things about courts also…. I am just generally saying, people do lampooning, A lot of people have a lot of criticism; we take it. You have a right to protect your reputation; we have no doubt about that,” the bench said.
This came after Bhatia urged the court to grant an injunction, submitting that another tweet had been posted during the hearing. He argued that such conduct should not be shown any leniency, particularly given the account’s millions of followers.
The suit comes at a time when the Delhi Police on Friday detained a 21-year-old right-wing content creator accused of severely injuring a 38-year-old man during the Jantar Mantar protests in June, officers said, hours after the CJP and other politicians staged a massive protest at the Parliament Street police station.