A Mumbai court restrained YouTuber Ajey Nagar alias CarryMinati, talent manager Deepak Char and others from publishing or circulating defamatory content against filmmaker Karan Johar on social media platforms [Karan Johar v. Ajey Nagar & Ors]
The order was passed by principal sessions judge PG Bhonsale on February 9 on a plea by Johar filed through Apoorva Mehta, the CEO of Dharma Productions, a company owned by Johar.
Johar claimed that the social media influencers made defamatory statements against him in their videos uploaded on YouTube.
“The statements are so vulgar and abusive that they immediately needs to be taken down,” Johar’s plea stated.
Nagar argued that the videos had been taken down so there was no cause that survived for Johar to approach the court.
Johar replied that though Nagar had taken down the defamatory videos, they had been viewed by ‘millions of people’.
“Unknown persons are making reels of it and again circulating it in the social media,” Johar argued.
The Court observed that prima facie it appeared that Nagar and Char made defamatory statements and used vulgar language against Johar.
“These videos need to be taken down immediately. There should be injunction against all those who circulate and re-circulate these videos on the social media platform. This is fit case to pass ad-interim injunction orders against the defendants,” the Court held.
The Court passed an order temporarily restraining content creators and others, including unnamed John Doe, from posting or circulating any other defamatory content against Johar till the filmmaker's application for interim relief is finally heard.
The Court also directed Meta Platforms to take down the video links of the content flagged by Johar.
Advocate PD Gandhy briefed by a team from DSK Legal including partners Parag Khandhar, Chandrima Mitra and associates Anaheeta Verma and Pratyusha Dhodda appeared for Johar.
Advocates Vikas Khera, Amit Kukreja and Alpna Mishra appeared for Nagar and Char.
Advocates Rishabh Jaisani and Abhishek Mookherjee briefed by Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas appeared for Meta.
Advocates Amishi Sodani and Charu Shukla appeared for Google LLC.