High Court orders removal of tweets by Congress leaders against journalist

New Delhi, June 15

The Delhi High Court on Saturday ordered the removal of tweets by Congress leaders Ragini Nayak, Jairam Ramesh, and Pawan Khera alleging that journalist Rajat Sharma used “abusive language” during his show on the LS poll result day.

The court said an irreparable loss and injury would be caused to the plaintiff’s reputation if the videos and posts on X were allowed to remain in the public domain.

The court also directed Google India to make related videos private and prevent their re-release without judicial approval. These tweets and videos were posted by the Congress leaders, the Indian National Congress and other users following Nayak’s accusation against Sharma.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said it is evident from the footage of the TV debate played in the court that plaintiff Sharma had “barely intervened for a few seconds and no abusive language was used” against Nayak. She observed that the balance of convenience favoured Sharma, stating that restraining the videos and tweets would not infringe on the defendants’ freedom of speech, but allowing them to remain public could cause irreparable harm to Sharma’s reputation. The court emphasised the importance of distinguishing between defamation and public criticism.