Madras High Court orders YouTuber to pay ₹50 lakh damages to Seva Bharathi for false allegations

The Madras High Court recently directed a YouTuber to pay ₹50 lakh as damages to RSS affiliated Seva Bharathi trust for making derogatory remarks against the trust. .In an order passed on March 6 this year, Justice N Satish Kumar said that no one can use their constitutional freedom of speech and expression to invade the privacy of others or mar their reputation. “Merely, under the pretext of freedom of expression, one cannot make interview intruding the privacy of others, the Law does not give such absolute license to the Youtubers and the social media to spoil the reputation of others. Therefore, this Court cannot shut its eyes when such false allegations are circulated targeting innocent persons," the Court said.It, therefore, directed one Surender alias Naathikan, to pay the amount to the Seva Bharathi Trust in Tamil Nadu for having made derogatory statements linking the trust with the custodial death of two Christian men, P Jayaraj and his son Bennix in 2020..“Circulating statements nowadays used as a tool to black mail the people. These things cannot be encouraged, unless it is discouraged in the initial stage, there will not be an end and every black mailer may use the social media platform to blackmail others by spreading false and unnecessary news,” the Court said..The order was passed on a plea by Seva Bharathi which approached the Court seeking damages and directions to restrain Surender from making any defamatory statements against it. It had told the Court that even though it had nothing to do with the deaths of Jayaraj and Bennix and that it was a known fact that the duo had died in police custody, Surendar had posted a video on YouTube falsely claiming that the Trust had had a role in the incident as it was “linked to the RSS” and wished to “eradicate the Christian community.”.The Court noted that the contents of the video were defamatory and baseless and held thus, that the Trust was “definitely entitled to claiming damages.”.“Though the exact amount of damages in terms of monetary damages cannot be ascertained portraying the plaintiff in a bad light with allegations that their aim is only to eliminate the Christian community is nothing but serious allegations which not only causes damage to reputation but will have a serious impact in the very activity of the trust. Such view of the matter, though the nature of damages is immeasurable, considering the nature of the statement circulated in YouTube in the form of interview, the plaintiff is certainly entitled to monetary compensation for a sum of ₹50,00,000/- which shall be paid by the defendant,” the Court said..Senior Counsel S Ravi appeared for the Seva Bharathi..[Read Order]