Delhi HC refuses immediate take down of defamatory material against J&K Dy CM
The high court has asked Meta to provide details of the uploaders of the alleged defamatory content to Surinder Kumar Choudhary in three days and directed him to serve a copy of the suit to them
The Delhi high court on Tuesday declined to order immediate removal of allegedly defamatory material posted online about Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary after Meta’s counsel objected to it, arguing that Choudhary was seeking directions solely against the platform without implicating the individuals responsible for uploading the allegedly defamatory content in his suit.
The court has asked Meta to provide details of the uploaders to Choudhary in three days and directed the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference(JKNC) leader to serve a copy of the suit to those individuals.
Choudhary’s lawyer Rajiv Nayyar had urged the bench of Justice Amit Bansal to order take down of the content without hearing the individuals who had uploaded the same, asserting that his face was plastered all over the posts allegedly featuring him in a phone conversation with a woman containing sexual undertones.
Nayyar argued that the presence of the fabricated content online was damaging his reputation daily.
However, Meta’s counsel objected, arguing that Choudhary was seeking directions solely against the platform without implicating the individuals responsible for uploading the allegedly defamatory content in his suit. Meta’s counsel also said that the video has been online since May 2023.
Considering the contentions, the court directed the social media platform Meta to provide details of the uploaders to him in three days instead of a week and asked Choudhary to serve a copy of the suit to the individuals. Justice Bansal, however, clarified that he would pass orders if the individuals did not appear despite being served.
“You get them (the individuals who have uploaded the video), and we will pass orders. If they do not come, we will pass an order. I don’t know the person who has… In all these matters, if the identity of the parties is known, you will have to serve them. Your face has been there for one year; you’ve woken up now. Let them come. You serve them, we will pass an order,” Justice Bansal said to Nayyar.
The court passed the order in Choudhary’s application seeking an early hearing of his suit.
To be sure, the high court on December 2 had fixed January 13 as the next date of hearing; however, Choudhary in his application urged the court to prepone the date of hearing, asserting that the presence of content was causing “colossal damage.”
The matter will be heard on December 16.
