Rajdeep Sardesai withdraws appeal against takedown order in Shazia Ilmi defamation case

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai on Wednesday withdrew his appeal against a Delhi High Court order that directed him to remove his social media post of an 18-second video clip showing an altercation between BJP leader Shazia Ilmi and an India Today journalist. .The appeal was withdrawn after a Division Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Renu Bhatnagar expressed reluctance to issue notice, observing that the Single Judge's order was well-reasoned..Justice Manmeet Singh Arora had earlier ordered the takedown of this 18-second video clip, which involved footage of Ilmi after she withdrew from a debate with India Today.In an April 4 order, the judge held that such a video recording violated Ilmi's right to privacy and cannot remain online. In doing so, the judge confirmed an interim order passed in August 2024. At the time, the Court also imposed ₹25,000 costs on Ilmi for suppressing certain tweets.Sardesai challenged the judge's directives against him, on the ground that Ilmi had suppressed facts..The case concerns a July 26, 2024, debate hosted by Sardesai on India Today, for which Ilmi was invited to speak. She attended the debate remotely, from her home.During 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." A heated argument followed between Sardesai 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. Sardesai claimed that after Ilmi decided to withdraw from the debate, she threw a mic at the journalist and threw him out of her house.Ilmi replied that her privacy was violated as the India Today journalist continued to shoot the video even after she had withdrawn from the show. She then filed a defamation suit before the High Court.In August 2024, the Court passed an interim order directing Sardesai to take down the video uploaded by him on his personal account. This direction was confirmed by the High Court's April 4, 2025 order.Later, on April 9, the Court also issued contempt of court notices to X users who had uploaded this clip in violation of court orders. It further directed X to share the basic subscriber information (BSI) details of such persons.X filed an application seeking a modification of this direction to disclose BSI details. However, earlier this month, Justice Arora rejected this plea and directed the X Corp to provide the BSI details within 36 hours.The judge also took exception to the continued violation of its April 4 takedown order by X users..Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar with Advocates Hrishikesh Baruah and Utkarsh Dwivedi appeared for Sardesai. .Advocates Nattasha Garg, Thakur Ankit Singh and Anubhav Dubey appeared for Ilmi.