The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued contempt of court notices to users of social media platform X who uploaded videos of an altercation Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shazia Ilmi had with an India Today journalist..Last week on April 4, the Court had ordered the takedown of an 18-second video clip that showed an altercation between Ilmi and a video journalist. Ilmi filed a fresh application in which she brought to the Court's attention certain social media posts where the video of her altercation was still available online. .Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora today urged X and Meta to immediately take down the videos, as well as similar posts flagged to them by Ilmi hereafter."Any such intimation received from the Plaintiff shall be independently examined and evaluated by the concerned Defendants/social media platforms and if found to be violative of the judgment dated 04.04.2025, the said Defendants/social media platforms will take action in accordance with law and keeping in view the injunction issued by this Court vide order dated 13.08.2024 and judgment dated 04.04.2025," the Court stated..Counsel appearing for Meta submitted before the Court that the Instagram post made a fair assessment of the incident by only reporting the matter. He submitted that the uploader should be given an opportunity to present his case before Court. The counsel assured the Court that it would take down the video if the user does not take it down.The Court directed the social media platform to take appropriate action against the accounts for wilfully violating Court’s order and judgment in accordance with of terms of their service agreements and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 within one week.X was also directed to provide basic subscriber information (BSI) of the said account holders to Ilmi within one (1) week. Thereafter, Ilmi is directed to take steps for issuance of show-cause notice to the social media account users.The next date of hearing is August 29. .The direction was passed in the defamation suit filed by Ilmi against journalist Rajdeep Sardesai over his comments on X related to a video recorded after she had left a debate show on the India Today channel.While ordering the takedown of the video, the Court reasoned that the recording, which had continued after Ilimi walked out of the show, violated her right to privacy and cannot remain online..The dispute originated on July 26, 2024, after a debate hosted by Sardesai on India Today. In the show, Sardesai and Ilmi clashed after she tried to intervene when Major General (Retired) Yash Mor was pointing out the shortcomings in the Agnipath scheme. As Ilmi intervened, Sardesai said that the former General was putting forth “hard facts."Ilmi responded, “Don’t sermonise”. A heated argument followed between the journalist and Ilmi for several minutes, after which Ilmi left the show..That same night, Ilmi posted a tweet on her X account accusing Sardesai of bringing down her fader (volume) on the show.“Remember I have been on both the sides and know how to handle bullies like you. BTW it doesn’t behove political propagandists masquerading as journalists to sermonise,” she posted.The next morning, Sardesai shared a video on his X account alleging that Ilmi had abused the India Today video journalist present at her home.“If you have a grouse with me or with an army general on the show, of course that’s your prerogative. And I respect that too. But for you to chuck the Mike and abuse our video journalist and throw him out of your house is just NOT done. He was only doing his job. No excuse for bad behaviour. The rest I leave to you. Have a good weekend,” he wrote. On the other hand, Ilmi alleged that her privacy was violated as the India Today journalist continued to shoot the video even after she had walked out of the show. She then moved the Court.In August 2024, the Court directed Sardesai to take down the video uploaded by him on his personal account..On the last date of hearing, the High Court imposed costs of ₹25,000 on Ilmi for suppressing facts in her defamation suit..Advocate Thakur Ankit Singh appeared for Ilmi.Advocates Hrishikesh Baruah, Utkarsh Dwivedi and Radhika Gupta represented Sardesai, India Today and the video-journalist.Advocates Varun Pathak, Yash Karunakaran and Tanuj Sharma appeared for Meta.Advocate Sauhard Alung appeared for Google..[Read order]
