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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its five leaders to take down posts allegedly defaming Lt. Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena, saying they were made in a reckless manner without fact-checking and to tarnish the reputation earned over the years.
A single bench of Justice Amit Bansal said that the prima facie statements, interviews, press conferences, tweets, re-tweets and hashtags of Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh and Jasmine Shah were per se defamatory.
It said Saxena is a constitutional body and cannot be subjected to personal attacks that AAP leaders have subjected him to on social media.
“It cannot be denied that a person’s reputation is earned after years and the same cannot be tarnished by another person in a random way. Damage to a person’s reputation is immediate and widespread on the Internet. As long as the impugned content continues to circulate and be visible on social media, it is likely to cause lasting damage to the plaintiff’s reputation and image,” Bansal said in a 13-page order.
The court ordered the social media platforms to remove the posts in case the AAP leaders did not comply with the directions within 48 hours.
The court said the balance of convenience was in favor of Saxena and against the AAP leaders. It added that “serious and irreparable harm and injury will be caused to Saxena’s reputation if the defamatory content continues to exist on the Internet and social media platforms and/or if the defendants are allowed to continue making defamatory statements of this nature.” against Saxena.
The court said AAP leaders did not even bother to respond to Saxena’s September 5 legal notice. “Therefore, the plaintiff’s only remedy to protect his reputation and prevent its erosion would be to go to court and seek an injunction.”
Saxena sought to restrain AAP, Atishi, Bharadwaj, Pathak, Singh and Shah and make them delete or remove “false and defamatory posts or tweets or videos circulated and posted on social media” while filing civil defamation charges.
AAP accused Saxena and his family of involvement in a ₹1,400 crore fraud during his tenure as chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). He quoted statements of two former KVIC officials and alleged that Saxena’s daughter was given a contract against the rules.
Saxena asked ₹2 crore in damages and told the court that AAP was making the allegations as part of a carefully planned motive to divert people’s attention from the action taken against its senior leaders.
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