Today, On 5th July, The High Court issued a notice to Congress leaders in response to a journalist’s plea regarding their alleged “non-compliance” with an order to remove offensive posts. The court’s notice seeks an explanation from the leaders concerning the failure to comply with the directive to take down the objectionable content.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court issued notices to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, and Ragini Nayak in response to a plea filed by veteran journalist Rajat Sharma.
Sharma claims that the leaders deliberately and wilfully failed to comply with the court’s previous order directing them to remove alleged offensive social media posts against him.
Justice Manmeet P S Arora also issued a notice to the social media platform X Corp, as part of the application filed by Sharma in his ongoing lawsuit.
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The high court asked the defendants to submit their reply within two weeks of receiving the notice, and has scheduled the matter for further hearing on August 22 before the joint registrar.
In an interim order on June 14, the high court directed the three Congress leaders to remove social media posts alleging that the journalist had used “abusive language” on his show on the day the Lok Sabha election results announced.
The court noted that this could cause irreparable loss and injury to the plaintiff’s reputation if the videos and posts were allowed to remain in the public domain.
On Friday, Sharma’s counsel argued that the three Congress leaders have still not complied with the high court’s June 14 order, as their posts remain online.
The counsel for X stated,
“The social media platform adhered to the order late on July 3, but the journalist’s lawyer claimed that this compliance was only partial, as the posts are disabled in India but remain visible internationally”
Sharma’s lawyer emphasized that this partial compliance by the social media platform contradicts a judgment by a coordinate bench. Since these posts were uploaded from IP addresses within India by the Congress leaders, they should be disabled globally.
The application stated,
“The conduct of defendant nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6 (X and the Congress leaders) constitutes wilful, deliberate, and contumacious behaviour, seriously interfering with the administration of justice. It is submitted that the defendant nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6 should not be heard on the merits of the matter until they purge their contempt,”
The application called for the court to hold them guilty of disobeying the order and to punish them accordingly, including detaining their key managerial personnel in civil prison for non-compliance.
It concluded,
“Pass an order requiring defendant nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6 to file affidavits declaring their movable and immovable properties and attaching the properties of defendant nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6 so declared,”
The high court previously issued summons to the defendants, including three Congress leaders, X Corp, Google India, and Meta Platforms, in the lawsuit. The case listed for further hearing on July 11.
Sharma’s counsel urged the court to grant ex-parte relief by ordering the removal of the alleged offensive posts and videos against Sharma on social media. They also sought to restrain the political leaders from making allegations against Sharma.
The controversy arose after Nayak accused Sharma of abusing her during a national television debate on his show on June 4. Sharma the chairman and editor-in-chief of Independent News Service Private Limited.
Sharma’s counsel argued that while the debate was happening on the channel on the evening of June 4, the Congress leaders started tweeting about the incident only on June 10 and 11. They contended that a clip of the show was being circulated with an abusive term inserted, whereas the original footage did not contain any such content.