Delhi High Court orders news portal Marunadan Malayalee to remove defamatory content against LuLu Group founder MA Yusuff Ali

The Delhi High Court Friday ordered an online Malayalam news portal, Marunadan Malayalee and its editor Shajan Skariah to immediately take down all the content published on its website, YouTube channel as well as other social media platforms against the founder of LuLu Group International, MA Yusuff Ali..Justice Chandra Dhari Singh passed the order after Yusuff Ali filed a defamation case alleging that Skariah has been running a defamatory campaign against him since 2013. “Till the next date of hearing, the defendant no. 1 (Skariah) is also restrained from using any platform/social media platforms including that of the defendant no. 2 i.e., YouTube for making any comments/remarks in relation to the plaintiff herein,” the Court said.The Court further said that if Skariah fails to comply, Google and YouTube has to take down such defamatory content and also suspend the operation of the channel till the next hearing of the case.“Upon the failure of the defendant no.1 to carry out the direction as mentioned hereinabove, the defendant no. 2/Google LLC/YouTube is directed to take down all distasteful and defamatory content published by the defendant no.1 on its platform using the aforementioned channels on the URLs as mentioned in the paragraphs 12, 13, 15, 16, 20 and 22 of the instant application, and to suspend the operation of the channels owned by the defendant no.1 till the next date of hearing,” the order said. .Yusuff Ali argued that the allegations made by Skariah were distasteful and done solely with the motive of maligning the reputation and fame enjoyed by the Ali.The counsel appearing for Ali further said that Skariah has been publishing false, concocted and inflammatory content against him even though injunction orders have been passed against him by a Kerala court..After hearing the counsel and examining the videos and articles, Justice Singh held that prima facie, Skariah’s comments amounted to misuse of freedom of speech.The bench observed that he is unnecessarily targeting the plaintiff and his business group.“It is pertinent to take note that even though the right to free speech and expression is a fundamental tenet of liberty which is considered to be an indispensable part of an effective democracy, the same does not give an absolute right to abuse one’s freedom to defame others. The law related to defamation is one such reasonable restriction on the freedom of speech as prescribed under the Constitution,” the Court underlined. .The Court concluded that a prima facie case for grant of injunction order was made out against the Skariah. It, therefore, prevented Skariah from making such allegations.The Court also issued summons on the suit and listed the case for further consideration on August 22..Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Saurabh Kirpal with advocates Pravin Anand, Haris Beeran, Saif Khan, Achuthan Sreekumar, Mushtaq Salim, Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Nikhil Arora, Rohit Bansal, Azhar Assees and Apoorva Prasad R appeared for MA Yusuff Ali..[Read Order]