Delhi High Court orders removal of Twitter, LinkedIn posts against arms dealer Abhishek Verma

After noting that a businessman called off negotiations with arms dealer Abhishek Verma owing to offending Twitter and LinkedIn posts against him, the Delhi High Court recently called for the taking down of the same [Abhishek Verma & Ors v. Vikki Choudhry & Ors]..Acting on a suit, Justice Asha Menon, highlighted,“Unfortunately, despite the requirement of Twitter and LinkedIn to deal with these kinds of complaints, they seem to have been disinterested in resolving the issues.”.The suit moved by Verma alleged that the defendants had initiated “a slanderous campaign” against him and his wife in order to harm their credibility.Verma, who is an accused in an Official Secrets Act case probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), contended that the defendants, by tweeting “falsehoods” and describing him as a “blackmailer” and “career criminal” among other things, had caused him financial losses. Verma was exonerated in the Scorpene deal scam in 2015..Verma claimed that the defendant, one Vikki Choudhry, repeatedly tagged top functionaries including the country’s Home Minister who had a large numbers of followers on Twitter and LinkedIn.The Bench was informed that repeated complaints to Twitter to block the tweets elicited no response, except for an advisory to the plaintiffs that they could block the defendants. This way, the platform was stated to have ignored the injury to the plaintiffs through widespread dissemination of “defamatory” tweets around the globe..Though the defendants’ contentions would have, in ordinary course, been material in deciding if the offending tweets and posts ought to be taken down, in cases where the injury was clearly disclosed, immediate relief could be granted on a prima facie view, the Court noted..“What cannot be overlooked is the email sent by Mr Simon Normantas cancelling the business dealings with the plaintiffs on account of the LinkedIn posts of the defendants, thus establishing an injury to them on account of the actions of the defendants,” underlined Justice Menon.According to the plaintiffs, businessman Normantas rescinded his business negotiations with them after he was tagged by the defendants in defamatory posts on LinkedIn. In a termination letter on October 4, 2020, he expressed that he longer wished to do business with a “bankrupt” person..In subsequent tweets and posts published in November and December 2021, the plaintiffs were termed as “broke” and unable to furnish bail, whereas Verma was called a “conman on the loose”, and someone who was also leading a “luxurious life” from inside the Tihar Jail.The Court, thus, observed that the plaintiffs had disclosed a prima facie case where their business reputation was at stake and harm had been caused already.“This Court is also satisfied that the balance of convenience tilts in the favour of the plaintiffs and an absence of interim directions would cause irreparable loss and injury to them,” it held.Defendants 1 and 2 - Choudhry and one M/s Uncanned Media Private Limited - were ordered to take down the tweets and posts in question within 36 hours of receiving the order. In the event the same is not complied with, LinkedIn and Twitter were required to block the posts and URLs in question. .Verma was represented by Senior Advocate Maninder Singh and Advocates Dinhar Takiar, Uday Bedi and Jaitegan Singh Kurana..[Read Order]