Delhi High Court: In a plea by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited (‘GCMMF’) (plaintiff) stating that the defendants 1 and 2 had failed to comply with the directions of the Court vide order dated 04-07-2024 for removing the impugned posts and videos regarding a dead centipede found in a vanilla ice cream tub of ‘Amul’ from defendant 1’s X (previously Twitter) account, a Single Judge Bench of Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, J. directed X Inc., Meta, and Google LLC to delete the URLs containing the impugned posts/videos present on their platforms within 36 hours and also directed the platforms to delete any other such URL containing the impugned posts/videos that GCMMF informs them about, within 36 hours.
Background
The Court had granted an ad-interim injunction directing defendants 1 and 2 to remove the social media posts including the videos uploaded on defendant 1’s X account upon prima facie finding that the defendants had elected not to appear before the Court to substantiate their claims made in the impugned posts and video which led the Court to believe that there was no reasonable basis for the claims.
GCMMF submitted that the impugned posts and videos were still available on defendant 1’s account and sought directions to be given to defendants 3 (X Inc.), 4 (Google LLC), and 5 (Meta) to remove the URLs set out in the plaint as they contained the impugned posts and videos uploaded by defendants 1 and 2 which other users had reposted.
GCMMF submitted that since defendants 1 and 2 had failed to take down the impugned posts/tweets/videos that they had originally uploaded on defendant 1’s account on X Inc.’s platform, GCMMF had written to X Inc. on 20-07-2024, requesting them to take down the said impugned posts in compliance of the order dated 04-07-2024. However, it was submitted that X Inc. had not taken down the posts.
Analysis and Decision
The Court found it pertinent to note that defendants 1 and 2 had neither appeared before the Court on the returnable date nor the adjourned date and that the willful non-appearance of defendants 1 and 2 led them to the inescapable conclusion that they were unable to substantiate the claims made by them.
The Court noted that defendants 1 and 2 had failed to comply with the order dated 04-07-2024 and the willful non-appearance of defendants 1 and 2 had tilted the balance of convenience in favour of GCMMF. The Court was satisfied that the continuing visibility of the impugned videos and posts was likely to spread misinformation and cause irreparable injury to GCMMF.
The Court stated that GCMMF had established a case for a grant of direction to X Inc., Meta as well as Google LLC for the removal of the impugned posts/tweets/videos uploaded by defendants 1 and 2 which were available on their social media platforms.
The Court considered the submissions made by GCMMF regarding the failure of X Inc. to take down the impugned posts and directed X Inc. to comply with the directions passed in the order dated 04-07-2024 as well as this order, within 36 hours.
The Court also directed Meta to delete the URLs on its platform which were mentioned in the plaint within 36 hours.
The Court stated that Google LLC was also bound to take down the URLs mentioned by GCMMF with respect to YouTube within 36 hours in case the said URLs had the contents of the impugned posts and videos.
Further, the Court mentioned URLs other than the URLs listed in the plaint and stated that if any identical posts/tweets/videos or a part or frame thereof, as was posted by defendants 1 and 2, is posted by any other user on X Inc. or Meta’s platform, GCMMF is given liberty to communicate the URL details of the said post and/or account to X Inc. or Meta which must take it down within 36 hours.
The Court also stated that if X Inc. or Meta claims that the afore-mentioned request of GCMMF regarding the URLs beyond the ones mentioned in the plaint cannot be acceded by giving reason that the content is not identical to the impugned posts, a communication must be given to GCMMF within 48 hours so that GCMMF can avail its remedies as per law.
The Court also directed Google LLC to comply with both the afore-mentioned directions.
Further, considering the non-appearance of defendants 1 and 2 despite the service of summons, the Court made the interim order dated 04-07-2024 absolute against defendants 1 and 2.
[Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. v. Deepa Devi, CS(OS) 499 of 2024, Decided on 24-07-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Plaintiff — Advocate Abhishek Singh, Advocate Elvin Joshy, Advocate Shashwat Tyagi, Advocate J. Amal Anand, Advocate Alisha Sharma
For Defendants — Advocate Neel Mason, Advocate Ekta Sharma, Advocate Pragya Jain, Advocate Varun Pathak, Advocate Shyamal Anand, Advocate Akhil Shandilya, Advocate Arunima Srivastava
