The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that an individual who is in politics has to be “thick-skinned” but a distinction has to be made between satire and defamation.
Justice Amit Bansal made the observations while hearing an application by BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia seeking the removal of “defamatory” content from social media over his appearance on a TV news show earlier this month, where he was reportedly seen wearing a kurta “without any pants/pyjama”.
The counsel appearing for Bhatia told the court he was wearing shorts and that the cameraman showed the bottom half of his body by mistake.
Advocate Raghav Awasthi appeared for Bhatia claimed that social media posts related to the incident violate Bhatia’s privacy, and the objectionable comments must be removed.
The judge said the court must be very careful while passing an ex parte injunction order, and paired the matter for hearing on September 25. “We have to be very careful. The Supreme Court has said that you should not pass ex parte orders in such cases. We have to be very careful,” the
judge remarked. The counsel contended that the picture was “taken in the privacy” of his home
and should not have been
circulated without his consent.
“It was an invasion of my
(Bhatia) privacy.
I was sitting in the privacy of my home. Such photos, first of all, may not be circulated without my consent,” he said. To this, the judge said, “You have the interview; they did not barge into your home.”
Meanwhile, advocate Mamta Rani Jha, appearing for Google, stated that some of the links sought to be taken down have nothing to do with this incident.
She said that some of the defendants are news publications. The Court also said that it must be very careful while passing an ex parte injunction order.
“We have to be very careful. The Supreme Court has said that you should not pass ex parte orders in such cases. We have to be very careful,” the judge remarked. “When you’re in politics, you’ve to be thick-skinned.
We’ll have to cull out what’s satirical and what’s defamatory. So for now we need to distinguish between offensive and satirical comments,” the judge said.
The judge, however, said that obscene comments have to be taken down.
