Baba Ramdev objects to X sharing pleadings with media in content blocking case

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Thursday took exception to X (formerly Twitter) sharing written submissions filed as part of its appeal against a 2019 Delhi High Court global content blocking order, with media outlets including Bar & Bench. .X had recently filed written submissions in its appeal against a 2019 order that had directed the global takedown of online posts with certain excerpts from the biographical book ‘Godman to Tycoon – The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev.'Bar & Bench had reported about these written submissions on Wednesday. The matter was briefly heard today by a Bench comprising Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee when Ramdev's counsel registered objection to the reporting of X's written submissions in the media before the same were shared with him."They (X) did not just share the written submissions with us, but also in media. Yesterday we saw on Bar and Bench, their entire written submissions were there. You fight the matter here or in the media? I am surprised. We filed our submission as we are supposed to, not with Bar and Bench,” submitted Senior Advocate Darpan Wadhwa, who appeared for Ramdev. "Mr. Wadhwa, everyone is doing it now," the Court replied. .Global blocking orders by courts will legitimise practices of authoritarian governments: X to Delhi High Court.Meanwhile, advocate Tejas Karia appeared for Meta (Facebook) and argued that the question involved in this case was whether Indian law would stretch to and prevail over other international jurisdictions. "Why would an intermediary even bother about it? You remove content as directed. You are intermediary. You have no right to (comment) about a matter pending in Supreme Court," Senior Advocate Darpan countered..Notably, social media platforms including X and Meta have argued that it would have been sufficient for the High Court to order the geo-blocking of any defamatory content against Baba Ramdev, instead of ordering a global takedown. The Counsel representing X echoed concerns raised in its written submissions that it would end up becoming a "race to the bottom" if content is pulled down from the internet globally based on obscure court orders from one country. The matter will be heard next on February 11, 2025..The matter concerns an October 2019 single-judge order directing the global blocking of certain excerpts from the book, 'Godman to Tycoon -The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev', written by Priyanka Pathak Narain and published by Juggernaut Books.The order was passed after Ramdev filed a suit accusing the authors of publishing defamatory content against him in their book. He succeeded in getting an injunction in September 2018 when Justice Anu Malhotra restrained Juggernaut Books from publishing, distributing, and selling the book to the extent that it made “unfounded claims” against the Yoga guru.The 2018 order stated that if Juggernaut Books wished to publish and sell the biography, it has to delete portions of the book that dealt with the death of Baba Ramdev’s ally, Shankar Dev Ji, and the disappearance of his guru, Swami Yogananda.The 2018 verdict was challenged before a Division Bench by the book's publisher, Juggernaut Books..However, while the publisher's appeal was pending, Ramdev filed another plea to restrain the online circulation of 'defamatory' excerpts from the book, since the 2018 verdict was still operational.In 2019, single-judge, Justice Prathiba Singh granted Ramdev relief by directing Twitter (as it was known then), Facebook, Google and YouTube to pull down any such references in the book from their platforms.Pertinently, the Court also said such content should be blocked globally, instead of only geo-blocking it in India. The Court said that such content on Ramdev must be globally blocked so that it is not accessible from India even through VPN or other such mechanisms.This 2019 directive has been challenged by X, Google and Facebook.