The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked social media platform X to remove a derogatory video linked to pharmaceutical company Serum Institute of India and its CEO Adar Poonawalla. The posts label them as ‘mass murderers’ after some deaths occurred due to the alleged adverse effect of the Covid19 vaccines
The video was uploaded by influencer Yohan Tengra
The court of Justice Gauri Godse observed that the video violated an earlier injunction order passed in a ₹100-crore defamation suit filed by the Serum Institute and Poonawalla. And, the court also issued a show-cause notice against Tengra and three others ‘for deliberate disobedience of the court’s injunction order.’
Tengra and others were restrained by the June 5, 2023, order from publishing or circulating defamatory videos and content. The same night Tengra uploaded a fresh video. On June 9, 2023, the plaintiffs issued a takedown notice to Google and X. Google complied but X refused, stating HC’s notice was not issued to it.
The dispute started when Tengra and his associates, his organisation Anarchy for Freedom India, Ambar Koiri and TV 10 L.I.V.E, an online news portal, allegedly published derogatory videos labelling Serum and its CEO as mass murderers.
Following this, the Serum Institute approached the court by way of a defamation suit, and in June 2023, the High Court restrained the defendants from circulating defamatory content.
However, the same evening, Tengra uploaded a fresh video explicitly refusing to comply with the court’s directions. Serum approached the court citing non-compliance.
On September 29, Justice Godse refused to issue blanket directions to intermediaries to censor future uploads or suspend user accounts.
The Court clarified that Section 79 of the Information Technology Act does not turn intermediaries into “super-censors” with the authority to independently determine what content is unlawful.
The judge held that “actual knowledge” under the IT Rules arises only when a competent court issues an order identifying specific material and has determined that the content is unlawful.
Consequently, the Court granted an interlocutory mandatory injunction directing X Corp to take down the non-compliant video. It held that it was necessary to restore the status quo and compel the undoing of illegal acts.
The bench also strongly rebuked Tengra and his counsel for repeated allegations against judges.
“It is unfortunate that sometimes the parties and their advocates, instead of following the procedure known to law, engage in making bald, baseless and derogatory remarks against other parties and the judges. Such conduct may result in ignoring the main cause and, in a given case, may defeat a genuine cause. Hence, such conduct needs to be deprecated,” the judge noted.
The matter will be heard next on October 27.
