Delhi High Court orders takedown of comments against PhysicsWallah by former employee

The Delhi High Court on Friday passed an interim order directing the takedown of disparaging comments made on social media against edtech firm PhysicsWallah by the firm's former employee, Nikhil Kumar Singh [PhysicsWallah Limited Vs Nikhil Kumar Singh and Ors]..Justice Jyoti Singh passed the order on a suit filed by PhysicsWallah seeking relief from defamation, trade mark infringement, copyright infringement, passing off, dilution of goodwill and unfair competition..PhysicsWallah has claimed that Nikhil Singh has been circulating defamatory and disparaging content about the company online. The Court was also told that Singh also runs a coaching institute under the name 'AIR CARTEL'..Senior Advocate Amit Sibal appearing for PhysicsWallah stated that it has rights over a group of marks ending with suffix “wallah”. “We train students for 6-12th classes and (for) 13 competitive exams. It is actually homegrown from modest beginnings. The intent is to enable students who cannot afford expensive education, to lift themselves up in this country and achieve their aspirations through reasonable priced services,” he submitted..“You are reasonably priced? Give me one of your bills, for my knowledge,” the Court remarked, in turn..Sibal went on to tell the Court that Singh has made disparaging comments on social media, referring to PhysicsWallah as ‘ScamWallah’ and ‘EmotionWallah’. He added that Singh has used PhysicsWallah’s founder’s picture to grab eyeballs and to misrepresent and mutilate his name.Sibal told the Court that requests have already been made to internet intermediaries to take down such infringing content. He submitted that a legal notice was issued to Singh as well, to which he replied that he intends to continue posting such comments against PhysicsWallah..“What is your justification for all this? Why all these disparaging comments?” the Court proceeded to ask the lawyer representing Singh.Singh's counsel took the defence of fair comment and fair criticism, adding that the comments he made are based on news reports. He also questioned whether the Delhi High Court has the territorial jurisdiction to decide the matter since PhysicsWallah’s office is in Noida and since Singh resides in Kolkata. The Court then gave Singh’s counsel the option to voluntarily withdraw the comments or have an injunction order passed against him. “Take it away yourself or you want me to pass an injunction order? You either make a statement to take it down and refrain in future, or I injunct you. If i injunct you, I will make observations on your conduct. It will not be a simple order. I will write two paras of very serious observations on your client,” the Court warned..Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Sibal told the Court that PhysicsWallah is also seeking orders to prevent Singh from making further disparaging comments or infringing its name. “Otherwise, it is like the ten heads of Ravan, you shoot one down and it keeps coming back,” he stated. The Court proceeded to grant an interim injunction in favour of PhysicsWallah, by directing the immediate takedown of the infringing material from social media. The matter is listed for further hearing on March 27. .PhysicsWallah was represented by Senior Advocate Amit Sibal along with a team from Sim And San, comprising Mohit Goel, Sidhant Goel, Aishna Jain, Urvashi Singh, Shashwat Mukherjee and Ishaan Pratap Singh..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.