India
oi-Prakash KL
Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) co-convenor Saurav Das and BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia have engaged in verbal duel after the Delhi High Court advised Das and his party member Ashutosh Ranka to remove some posts targeting Bhatia.
During the hearing of Bhatia’s defamation suit, the court took exception to allegations made without proper verification and advised the young political activists to be more measured in the way they expressed their views.
Recommending more careful expression, the Delhi High Court asked CJP’s Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka to delete posts against BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia in a defamation suit, while rejecting Bhatia’s injunction request and ordering platforms to act on future similar posts.
Live Law quuoted Justice Tushar Rao Gedela as orally saying: “There are different ways of protesting. You are all youngsters. You may have anxieties. But attacking like this without verifying is not correct right. If you are willing to take down on your own, put your replies. We don’t want to pass takedown order”.
After agreeing to delete the posts, Das, in a post on X, said: “This is with respect to the pantless-Gaurav Bhatia case before the Delhi High Court. We are waiting for a copy of the order. However, during the hearing today, the Hon’ble Judge suggested that we take down the post with a picture of pantless Gaurav Bhatia. Keeping in mind that the suggestion fell from the Hon’ble Court, and its suggestion to not be stuck in court cases given the amount of good work we have to do, both @AshutoshRanka and I voluntarily undertook to delete the posts. More importantly, Bhatia sought a dynamic injunction against us but the High Court REJECTED the same,”
“The Hon’ble Court advised Bhatia that instead of approaching the court, things could have been amicably settled but he refused the proposal. It goes without saying that we have full faith and respect for the Court to do fair justice. We will do everything in our capacity to save the Court’s precious time and scarce resource,” he added.
On the other hand, the BJP leader and the senior advocate responded to the court verdict with a post: “No comments” while sharing the headlines of the court proceedings.
“CJP’s Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka to delete posts against BJP’s Gaurav Bhatia; Delhi High Court asks Meta, X to take down identical posts in future”
“Will Take Down Posts Against Sr Advocate Gaurav Bhatia In 24 Hours: CJP’s Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka Tell Delhi High Court Court issued summons to CJP and Abhijeet Dipke in Bhatia’s defamation suit.”
Earlier, the court stated that the they have rights to express but advised them to put in a more articulate manner. The judge said, “There are other ways of handling it. You are youngsters, and you have a long way to go. Why do you want to spend time in courts?”
The counsel appearing for Das and Ranka told the court that they would remove the posts within 24 hours.
The court, however, did not immediately impose a blanket restriction on the two from publishing further posts. Instead, in view of their undertaking, it directed social media platforms Meta and X to take down identical posts in the future if Bhatia flags them.
The court also issued summons in Bhatia’s defamation case and sought responses from Das, Ranka and CJP founder Abhijit Dipke. Dipke was represented by advocate Nakul Gandhi.
The dispute stems from a post shared by Das on X on September 5, featuring an AI-generated graphic that alleged Bhatia had called Swatantra Bhardwaj a “dimagi naxal”.
Das subsequently deleted the post after Bhatia gave him 24 hours to remove it and issue an unconditional apology. Das, however, said the graphic was AI-generated and questioned whether Bhatia disputed the statement attributed to him.
