'Defamatory & Reckless' : Bombay High Court Asks Malayali YouTuber To Take Down Video Against Malabar Gold

The Bombay High Court recently restrained a Malayali YouTuber Shajan Skariah from making any "defamatory" posts against Malabar Gold Limited and further issued a directive to him to pull down an 'objectionable' video already posted on the social media platform.

Single-judge Justice Arif Doctor after hearing the brief submissions made by the counsel representing Malabar Gold said the video in question is per se defamatory.

"I find that the same are per se defamatory and indeed reckless. I therefore find that the Plaintiff has made out a case for the grant of the limited prayer for ad interim relief that has been sought," the judge said in the August 7 order.

The plaintiff's interim prayer was to direct the defendant to forthwith delete the disputed video from YouTube, which violates it's rights under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The judge was seized with an interim application filed in a suit instituted by Malabar Gold against the YouTuber for posting a video against the plaintiff company on his Channel - Marunadan Malayali. The video content contained several defamatory statements against the company. It was contended that one of the ex-employees of the Plaintiff namely Arjun Sathyan was removed from his job on account of various acts of misdeed on the part of the said employee. The video in question, the company contended was made in connection with this incident.

The judge perused the transcript with the help of the counsel of the company and said, "I have no hesitation in holding that these statements are indeed per se defamatory."

Further the company contended that the statements made in the video were not made on instructions of the ex employee as much as a report of the said incident but appeared to be at the pure ipse dixit of the defendant. The company objected to such content arguing that the defendant was not at all connected to the company and neither was an insider and thus had no knowledge about the plaintiff.

To butress it's case, the company highlighted the fact that the post had received 5,17,461 views, 11,000 likes and 1,618 comments. The company to bring home its point that the video has damaged the reputation of it, highlighted certain comments which were made by the general users of YouTube, tarnishing the image of the company, based on the video content.

Lastly, the company highlighted the fact that the defendant has been habitually making such videos and has indulged in various litigation due to his controversial videos.

Therefore, as an interim measure, the bench has ordered the YouTuber to remove the video and if he fails to do so, the court has ordered Google LLC, which owns YouTube, to delete the said video.

The matter has been posted for further hearing on August 20.

Appearance:

Advocates Karl Tamboly, Nidhi Singh, Ishan Gambhir, Shubham Khairee and Akshata Parkar instructed by India Law LLP appeared for the Plaintiff.

Advocate Vinuta Rayadurg instructed by Economic Laws Practice represented the Defendant.

Case Title: Malabar Gold Limited vs Shajan Skariah (Suit(L)/24425/2024)

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