Delhi High Court orders take down of tweets alleging Gaurav Bhatia was "beaten up"; YouTube videos to be made private

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered the take down of several posts on X (earlier Twitter) which made allegations that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia was "beaten up" by lawyers in a Noida court..Justice Neena Bansal Krishna further ordered that a host of videos on YouTube alleging that Bhatia was beaten up shall be made private till the pendency of his defamation suit against them.It was the BJP leader's case that the videos were uploaded with an "ulterior motive".Justice Krishna had reserved the verdict on April 8..YouTube channels Article 19 India (run by journalist Naveen Kumar), The News Launcher, BBI News as well as comedian Rajeev Nigam have been ordered to make the videos private.X (twitter) handles Sandeep Singh, Vijay Yadav, NETAFLIX, Sunita Jadhav, parody account of actor Pankaj Tripathi, Dawood Nadaf, Drkhatra and Virus Baba INDIA Wala have also been directed to remove the content. .Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi along with Advocates Raghav Awasthi and Mukesh Sharma represented Bhatia..In a detailed judgement passed today, the High Court said that while it cannot be denied that the press and the media had a duty to report this incident for the benefit of the public, there was also a corresponding duty to remain truthful to the incident.The Court said that the deepfake videos showing the Bhatia being beaten up and the claims of him having been beaten are nothing but an over-sensationalization of facts which are patently false."Prima facie dissemination or playing of such videos has not only caused harm to the reputation of the plaintiff as has been asserted by him, but also has the potential of persistent threat of being aired and used against the plaintiff at any time in future. Such being the imminent threat of misuse of the videos in future, which are prima facie depicting applicant/plaintiff in a light which may not be the true facts, is liable to be restrained from being kept in the public domain till the Suit is finally decided," the Court said.The Court noted that 14 videos which are allegedly defamatory have already been made private and they shall remain so.It added that the X posts which have not been removed yet shall be removed within 7 days. "It is further directed that the videos which are in the public domain be made private by defendant No.14 [Google/YouTube] and not to be put in the public domain, without the Orders of this Court.".In his defamation suit, Bhatia stated that an unfortunate incident occurred on March 20 in a district court in Gautam Budh Nagar in Noida, where his lawyer's bands were snatched by an advocate in presence of the judge.That very same day, YouTube channel Article 19 uploaded a video titled “Police vakeelo se chhudati, Gaurav Bhatia ki Dhulai ho chuki thi (Before police could rescue Gaurav Bhatia from lawyers, he was beaten up)".YouTube channel News Launcher uploaded a video titled “BJP Pravakta Gaurav Bhatia ko vakeelo ne koot diya, Godi Media Muh Chhupati Fir Rahi (BJP Spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia beaten up by lawyers, Godi Media is hiding its face).”The video by BBI News was titled “Gaurav Bhatiya ke sath vakeelo ki nok jhok, Gaurav Bhatiya funny memes viral video.”Details of videos and social media posts made by other channels were added in the suit.The suit argued that the videos had garnered hundreds of thousands of views and were defamatory in nature.“It [the video] accuses him of indecent behaviour, physical assault, and dishonourable conduct, employing derogatory language to paint him as a thug and a disgrace. The portrayal of Plaintiff as a helpless victim of physical violence and humiliation within a courtroom setting is not only damaging but also seeks to undermine his credibility and standing as a Senior Advocate and a spokesperson for a political party,” Bhatia argued in his suit..[Read Judgment]