A Bengaluru court directed social media to take down a photograph with false claims against Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala

Recently, a Bengaluru court passed a John Doe order directing social media platforms to take down a photograph that was widely circulated with the claim that Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala of the Supreme Court were the two persons present in the picture.

Background

The photograph was shot at MindEscapes, a club owned by Sikand in Tamil Nadu. At this club, journalist and member of the Kasturi family that controls the N Ram, Hindu Group of publications and his wife Mariam hosted a lunch for Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan, current Finance Minister of TN, CPI (M) leader Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy on July 1 this year.

Shikand shared the group picture on her private Facebook and Linkedin pages.

Following the statements made by Justices Kant and Pardiwala of the Supreme Court in the Nupur Sharma case, several people circulated the photograph incorrectly identifying the guests as the said judges and alleging that they dined with "Naxal groups" and "communists".

Sikandar then approached the Court, arguing that such inaccurate and defamatory content has violated her rights as well as those of her guests and that they have suffered irreparable harm to their reputations and goodwill.

Therefore, the suit sought the passing of a John Doe order (an order seeking an injunction against unknown individuals), it also specifically indicted three individuals who shared the photograph - Jagadeesh Laxman Singh, Sonalika Kumar, and Siddharth Dey, as defendants.

Held

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and WhatsApp were ordered to remove all libelous and defamatory content against Sikand and the court also restrained the defendants from publishing such libelous content against the plaintiff.