Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has filed an appeal before the Delhi High Court challenging an earlier order by a single judge directing him to take down an 18-second allegedly defamatory video showing an altercation between BJP leader Shazia Ilmi and an India Today journalist
NEW DELHI: Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has approached the Delhi High Court to challenge an earlier order directing him to remove an 18-second video clip from social media.
The video, which allegedly shows Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shazia Ilmi in a heated exchange with an India Today journalist, was deemed a violation of Ilmi’s right to privacy by a single-judge Bench.
On April 4, 2025, Justice Manmeet Singh Arora had ruled that the short video clip “violated Ilmi’s right to privacy” and should not remain online. This decision confirmed an earlier interim order issued in August 2024, which had also imposed a Rs. 25,000 cost on Shazia Ilmi for failing to disclose certain tweets.
Sardesai, through his legal team, is now contesting the order, arguing that Ilmi “had suppressed facts.” The matter was listed before a division Bench comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Renu Bhatnagar.
Appearing on behalf of Sardesai, Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar contended that the single-judge Bench had relied only on a “truncated video” while passing the interim order. However, the division Bench refused to hear the matter immediately.
“Why has it come on the last day (the High Court closes for its vacations today)? We will have it in July,” said Justice Chawla.
The Court allowed Sardesai to submit the relevant video clips using a pendrive.
Background
The controversy stems from a debate hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today on July 26, 2024, in which Shazia Ilmi participated from her home. During the discussion, Ilmi interrupted Major General (Retired) Yash Mor as he criticised the Agnipath scheme. In response, Sardesai said the ex-Army officer was presenting “hard facts.”
This led to a prolonged argument between Ilmi and Sardesai, after which Ilmi left the debate mid-way.
That night, Ilmi took to social media to criticise Sardesai, tweeting:
“Remember I have been on both the sides and know how to handle bullies like you. BTW it doesn’t behove political propagandists masquerading as journalists to sermonise.”
The next morning, Sardesai posted a video on his personal X account (formerly Twitter) claiming that Ilmi had verbally abused and physically intimidated an India Today journalist who was stationed at her home. Sardesai alleged that Ilmi threw a microphone and asked the journalist to leave after walking out of the debate.
In response, Ilmi said her “privacy was violated” because the journalist continued filming even after she had withdrawn from the program. She then filed a defamation case against both Sardesai and the India Today journalist.
In August 2024, the High Court had passed an interim order requiring Sardesai to remove the controversial video from his X account. This direction was later confirmed in April 2025.
Following that, on April 9, the Court issued contempt notices to various X users who had shared the same clip despite court orders. It also directed X to provide Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) of these users.
X Corp challenged this directive and sought modifications to protect the privacy of its users. However, Justice Arora rejected this request earlier in May and ordered the platform to provide BSI details within 36 hours.
Justice Arora strongly criticised the continuing violations of her April 4 order. “It was surprising that people were using the judgment and video together. It was a mockery of the judgment,” the Court noted.
However, responding to X’s request, the Court agreed to consider at a later date how much privacy X users are entitled to when BSI data is sought by authorities. This issue will be heard next on August 29.
Case Name : Rajdeep Sardesai v. Shazia Ilmi
