The Delhi High Court has directed social media giants such as Facebook, Google and YouTube to take down videos that contain alleged “slanderous and defamatory” statement about Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Ltd.
Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. moved the court after the social media giants declined its request to remove the alleged defamatory contents without an order of the court.
The petition complained that one Meera Kumar, ex-employee of Divya Pharmacy, a subsidiary of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, was using social media platforms to defame the company.
Services terminated
Senior advocate Rajiv Nayyar, appearing for Patanjali, contended that his client “found videos containing slanderous, defamatory and absolutely false statements about plaintiffs, uploaded, disseminated and shared” on the social media sites.
Mr. Nayyar submitted that Ms. Kumar was an ex-employee whose services were terminated on May 18 last year and she was indulging in “nefarious campaign to defame” his client.
He submitted that the social media sites should have a “fair mechanism” to remove defamatory and slanderous contents upon receipt of a complaint by the affected person.
He argued that the stand of the social media giants to approach the court for removing such defamatory content was “unfair and reasonable” and puts the citizens to a heavy cost of litigation.
He said that by the time a citizen approaches the court, “immense damage has already been done and such damage is irreversible.”
Justice J.R. Midha directed Facebook, Google and YouTube to block access to certain weblinks submitted by Patanjali which contain the alleged defamatory contents.
The court also restrained Ms. Kumar from giving any interview in the print media, electronic media, social media or any kind of circulation, by which the content of defamation may be circulated in future, till further orders.