The Delhi High Court on September 10, recorded undertakings from Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka to remove social media posts concerning BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia within 24 hours. The posts formed the basis of Bhatia’s ₹2 crore defamation suit.
Background of the Case
Bhatia approached the High Court over an AI-generated graphic circulated on X which, according to his suit, falsely attributed remarks about Swatantra Bhardwaj to him. Bhatia has denied making the statements and alleged that his photograph was used alongside the purported remarks, creating a false association.
The suit names CJP founder Abhijit Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka as defendants. Bhatia has sought ₹2 crore in damages along with other reliefs.
During the hearing, the Court suggested that Das and Ranka consider removing the posts voluntarily instead of the Court passing an immediate takedown direction.
" There are different ways of protesting. Do you really need to go to this? You are youngsters. You have your anxiety. That's understandable but saying something like this or putting something like this may not be correct. "
Counsel for Das subsequently stated that the impugned tweets would be taken down, while counsel for Ranka also undertook to remove the relevant post.
Bhatia pressed for a dynamic injunction, seeking protection against similar posts appearing in the future. Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, however, declined to grant such relief at this stage, noting that the defendants were yet to file their responses.
The Court also observed that social-media criticism and lampooning form part of public life, while making it clear that Bhatia had a right to protect his reputation.
"Lot of people say a lot of things about the court. I am just generally saying, people do lampooning, people do so many things, we take it. You have a right to protect your reputation, we don't doubt that," the Court said.
The Court issued summons to the defendants and directed them to file their responses. It also permitted Bhatia to approach X and Meta if identical or similar posts are published in future. The platforms may consider such requests and take appropriate action, with any difficulty in removal to be communicated to Bhatia.
The Court further directed X to place the Basic Subscriber Information of the relevant accounts on record within three weeks.
At this stage, no adverse finding was recorded against the defendants.
