"Digital vigilantism": Delhi HC pulls up Richa Chadha, media over unverified sexual misconduct claims against man

The Delhi High Court recently criticised actor Richa Chadha and media houses ABP and NDTV for publicly “shaming” and amplifying unverified allegations against a man who was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman on a Delhi-Mumbai flight.

The incident dates to March 11 when a woman, a journalist by profession, accused a man sitting next to her of inappropriate physical conduct during the flight. 

Shortly after the flight landed, the journalist posted the accusation on the social media platform X, naming the man, a senior professional at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She shared his photograph and professional details as well.

The post soon gained traction, and many news outlets carried the reports on the incident. Richa Chadha reposted the allegations with the remark, “Make him famous”. 

However, the man denied the allegation, claiming he remained seated throughout the journey and had fallen asleep shortly before landing.

He later approached the Delhi High Court with a defamation suit against the journalist, Chadha and several media platforms.

Justice Vikas Mahajan heard the matter on March 20 and observed that Chadha’s endorsement and amplification of unverified allegations along with the “instigatory” text ‘Make him famous’, transcended mere free expression and acted as a catalyst for public shaming and digital vigilantism.

A public figure bears a legal and moral responsibility to verify the veracity of facts before leveraging her platform to amplify grave accusations, the Court underscored. 

“The Court is prima facie of the view that endorsement of unverified allegations has inflicted immediate, exponential, and incalculable harm on the plaintiff's reputation,” the judge said. 

He noted that Chadha has taken down the Tweet and added that the Court expects her not to precipitate the issue in future. 

The Court also criticised the journalist (who accused the plaintiff) for posting allegations on X before filing an FIR.

The judge opined that it was overhasty and aimed at sensationalising the issue. 

“While defendant no. 1 [journalist] has an unhindered right to report a grievance, but using social media to circulate allegations of inappropriate touching and revealing the identity of the plaintiff along with his photograph before a formal investigation even commences, in a prima facie view of this Court, is a severe transgression of the plaintiff's fundamental right to live with dignity and have fair trial,” the Court said. 

The Court also came down heavily on digital media outlets NDTV, ABP, OBNews, and an Instagram page ‘Pardafaash Media’ for reproducing and sensationalising claims without independent verification. It said several reports prematurely adjudicated the issue and effectively labelled the plaintiff a culprit even before the investigation had progressed.

“Such pronouncements grossly violate the foundational principle of criminal jurisprudence viz. the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and create an unwarranted parallel investigation that has the potential of severely prejudicing the ongoing investigation in the aforesaid FIR,” the Court said. 

Therefore, it ordered the removal of defamatory content and restrained the defendants from publishing similar allegations until the next hearing.

Senior Advocate Shyel Trehan with advocates Priyadarshini Dewan, Shankari Mishra, Niti Khanna, Vidhi Jain and Rohan Poddar appeared for the man.

Advocate Vanya Chhabra appeared for the journalist. 

Senior Advocate Madhav Khuranna along with advocates Aman Raj Gandhi, Saloni Kumar, Chattanya Sharma, Amit Badesra and Lakshay Shehrawat represented Richa Chadha.