Delhi HC asks CJP leaders to voluntarily remove posts in Gaurav Bhatia's Rs 2-crore defamation suit

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the accused in a defamation case filed by senior advocate and BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia on the matter willing to voluntarily take down their disputed social media posts stating that there are numerous ways of protesting and that criticism should be expressed in a more clear mannerJustice Tushar Rao Gedela made the remarks while hearing Bhatias Rs 2crore defamation suit against Saurav Das Ashutosh Ranka Abhijeet Dipke and others Bhatia appeared in personDuring the hearing the Court questioned the inclusion of Abhijeet Dipke as a defendant and asked what content had been posted by him Counsel for Dipke submitted that there was not a single tweet by him forming the subject matter of the dispute and that the prayers in the suit were primarily against defendants Saurav Das and Ashutosh RankaThe Court observed that there was no evidence against him and indicated that Dipke could be removed as a partyThe Court also asked the counsel appearing for the other defendants to take instructions on whether they were willing to remove the disputed posts voluntarilyThere are different ways of protesting You are all youngsters You may have anxieties But attacking like this without verifying is not correct the Court observedThe Court said it did not want to issue a takedown order at this stage if the defendants were ready to remove the content on their ownCounsel for Das submitted that the tweet in question had already been deletedThe Court however stated that another post had also been put up You have the right to express but sometimes expressions need to be put in a more articulate manner so that intention goes in the right way the Court statedThe judge also told Bhatia that there could be various different mediums of addressing the issue and stated that he could have contacted the defendants before approaching the CourtGaurav Bhatia states the postdafaming to his reputationBhatia submitted that the case involved aggravated defamation and said the disputed posts should not remain on the internet as the defendants have a large number of followers He submitted that the posts were damaging to his reputation and that he had given the defendants an opportunity to remove the contentBhatia also alleged that his photograph had been used with a altered statement and that a news agencys logo had been used in the graphic which according to him gave the content an appearance of credibilityThe Court questioned Bhatia about how Dipke and the CJP had been made parties to the proceedings and what specific acts were attributed to themBhatia said the suit copy had also been served on XThe Court reiterated that defendants Nos 1 and 2 namely Das and Ranka were the individuals against whom the immediate allegations had been made and asked them to take instructionsThe Court further advised the young defendants that they had many things ahead of them including education and other work and questioned why they should spend their hours litigating in courtThe matter was thereafter passed over with the defendants being asked to take instructions and return to the CourtBhatia has filed the suit seeking Rs 2 crore in damages and permanent and mandatory injunctions against the defendants over alleged defamatory content circulated on the social media platform XAccording to the plaint the immediate dispute relates to an AIgenerated graphic which allegedly carried Bhatias photograph and attributed remarks concerning Swatantra Bhardwaj to him Bhatia has denied making the alleged remarks The plaint said that the disputed post was viewed by more than 132 lakh people and was thereafter deleted after Bhatia objected to itThe suit alleges that Das and Ranka published or amplified the disputed material and that the use of Bhatias photograph alongside the alleged statement created a false impression that he was its source Bhatia has claimed that the circulation of the content caused reputational harmWith inputs from ANI