Delhi HC reserves order in plea by Reliance Jio against Airtel’s misleading IPL ad

The Delhi High Court yesterday reserved its order in the plea by Reliance Jio against Bharti Airtel for its allegedly misleading advertisement which is aired during the broadcast of the Indian Premier League..Reliance Jio had submitted that the Airtel advertisement, which allegedly offered “live and free”access to Twenty-Twenty cricket coverage, was deliberately deceptive, misrepresenting and misleading..Airtel had, in turn, agreed to modify the advertisement by prominently displaying the information regarding data consumption cost..Last week, Jio had approached the court with a contempt petition against Airtel for failing to comply with the order of the court and for not tweaking the said advertisement. However, the Court had granted another opportunity to Airtel to comply with the order..Yesterday, Senior Advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Bharti Airtel, submitted that there was no legal or common law right of the plaintiff (Reliance Jio) which was being violated..He further stated that Airtel had complied with the order of the court by including a disclaimer in the advertisement and had also been compliant with the standards of the Advertising Standards Council of India..Representing Reliance Jio, Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan reiterated that the plaint was filed as the advertisement is misleading and tells people that something is free when it is not. He further stated that Airtel was trying to grab business unfairly..The Single Judge Bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna reserved its order which is likely to be pronounced in a few days as the current season of IPL is nearing its end.