Delhi High Court issues notice to YouTube channels, social media handles in Gaurav Bhatia defamation suit

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices to YouTube channels as well as social media handles in a defamation case filed by Senior Advocate and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gaurav Bhatia for misrepresenting the incident at a Noida court where Bhatia was manhandled. .Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said that it was not possible to pass an order without hearing other parties"It will not be possible to give an ex parte order. Something very unfortunate has happened. There is no denying that. Supreme Court has been equally sensitive and taken cognisance. We will issue notice and you can have it on any day," the Court said..The Court then proceeded to issue notice on Bhatia's plea for interim relief and summons on the suit. It listed the case for hearing of the interim relief application on Monday, April 8..Notice was issued to YouTube channels Article 19 India (run by journalist Naveen Kumar), The News Launcher, BBI News as well as comedian Rajeev Nigam.X (twitter) handles Sandeep Singh, Vijay Yadav, NETAFLIX, Sunita Jadhav, parody account of actor Pankaj Tripathi, Dawood Nadaf, Drkhatra and Virus Baba INDIA Wala were also issued notice..In his defamation suit, Bhatia stated that an unfortunate incident happened on March 20, 2024 in the court of District Judge, Gautam Budh Nagar, District Court, Noida where his band was snatched by a lawyer in presence of the judge.That very same day, YouTube channel Article 19 uploaded a video titled “Police vakeelo se chhudati, Gaurav Bhatia ki Dhulai ho chuki thi (Before police could rescue Gaurav Bhatia from lawyers, he was beaten up)".YouTube channel News Launder uploaded a video titled “BJP Pravakta Gaurav Bhatia ko vakeelo ne koot diya, Godi Media Muh Chhupati Fir Rahi (BJP Spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia beaten up by lawyers, Godi Media is hiding its face).”The video by BBI News was titled “Gaurav Bhatiya ke sath vakeelo ki nok jhok, Gaurav Bhatiya funny memes viral video.”Details of videos and social media posts made by other channels were added in the suit..The suit argued that such content has garnered hundreds of thousands of views and is defamatory in nature.Advocates Raghav Awasthi and Mukesh Sharma appeared for Bhatia. Awasthi contended that the videos are making baseless allegations despite the fact that true events are recorded in the order of the Supreme Court which took suo motu cognisance of the event.Awasthi pointed to one of the videos and said that it justifies the violence and has the potential to promote physical violence against Bhatia.He also said that some of the videos allege that Bhatia had gone to Noida to represent influencer Elvish Yadav, but that insinuation is completely untrue..“It accuses him of indecent behaviour, physical assault, and dishonourable conduct, employing derogatory language to paint him as a thug and a disgrace. The portrayal of Plaintiff as a helpless victim of physical violence and humiliation within a courtroom setting is not only damaging but also seeks to undermine his credibility and standing as a Senior Advocate and a spokesperson for a political party,” Bhatia argued in his suit.The suit added,“Such unfounded accusations and malicious descriptions not only unjustly malign Plaintiff's character but also serve to encourage a negative perception of him. This flagrant attempt to assassinate his character and incite disdain towards him is not only baseless but also reprehensible. The Plaintiff is refraining from repeating the disrespectful and unparliamentary language used by Defendant No. 1 in the video, which is defamatory toward the Plaintiff since the allegations of beatings inflicted upon the Plaintiff are baseless.”.Advocate Mehmood Pracha appeared for journalists Neelu Vyas (YouTube Channel The News Launcher) and Professor Akhil Swamy (also a defendant in the case).