'You'll Have To Comply': Delhi HC To X Corp In Appeal Against Single Judge Direction To Remove Tweets Against Journalist Rajat Sharma

X Corp. (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court against a single judge order which directed removal of tweets made by Congress leaders Ragini Nayak, Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera alleging that senior journalist Rajat Sharma used abusive language on air during a show on the election result day.

Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao appearing for X Corp. told a division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan that the social networking platform is aggrieved as the single judge allowed the injunction application in Sharma's defamation suit ex parte.

“I am aggrieved because the onus is directly placed on me,” Rao said, adding that the single judge passed a final order in the injunction application without putting X Corp. to any notice.

He said that X Corp. “does not have any skin in the game” but the concern is in the manner the single judge passed the impugned order.

To this, the Acting Chief Justice orally remarked that being an intermediary, X Corp. will have to comply with the judicial order.

“You're an intermediary, you can be directed to take down. Please see, there is a judgment of Supreme Court that court will direct the intermediary to take down. It doesn't lie in your mouth to say that you won't take it down. You'll have to comply,” the bench also comprising of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela remarked.

The ACJ added: “In every case we direct so. In many cases we tell the domain name registrars to take down. I've passed 150 orders or so. I've never been contradicted.”

The bench further remarked that the intellectual property jurisdiction is all about territorial laws which is a major challenge being faced by courts.

The court also said that it is “a bit concerned” about X Corp's locus and that it is not behaving like an intermediary.

Emphasising that X Corp must behave like a neutral platform, the court said:

“You may be right that you're a neutral platform and you've got nothing to do with this. But we are increasingly finding on original as well as appellate side that the domain name registrars and intermediaries are refusing to comply with orders. It is not national issue but it is an international trend. Even in Canada this has happened and the Canadian Court has said that take it down but they say give me an order from the local court. But you'll have to decide.”

Justice Gedela then told Rao that it is a case where somebody's reputation is involved and not that of X Corp. and that even on that score, the court cannot interfere.

Accordingly, the court, with the consent of both the parties, clarified that the single judge order is an ad interim order and that the injunction application will be taken up by the single judge for hearing and disposal on July 11.

Last month, the single judge had allowed Sharma's interim injunction application. “…it is directed that the X Posts/Tweets which have not been removed, be removed within seven days by defendants in terms of the Intermediary Guidelines,” the court had directed.

The controversy arose after Congress national spokesperson Ragini Nayak accused Sharma of abusing her on national television on the counting day of 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Title: X Corp v. Rajat Sharma

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 738