The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed social media user Sameet Thakkar to take down his tweets that were posted against India Today Group, its management and employees within 48 hours.
According to the reports, a petition was filed by TV Today Network in the Delhi HC seeking directions against Sameet Thakkar, who had allegedly posted derogatory tweets against the TV Today Network, its management and its employees.
Hearing the petition, the Delhi High Court Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta directed the defendant to remove the tweets in the next 48 hours and also said that they would ask Twitter to remove the content in next 72 hours if he fails to delete tweets against TV Today network.
“Defendant No. 1 is directed to take down the said URLs from its Twitter account within 48 hours of the receipt of the copy of such replication from the learned counsel for the plaintiff, failing which the plaintiff would write a letter to the learned counsel for the defendant No. 3 (Twitter) giving the specified 29 sets of ULRs as provided in Para 11 of the replication, which the defendant No. 3 (Twitter) will take down within 72 hours thereafter,” the Delhi High Court observed.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on 14 January 2021.
Sameet Thakkar had made allegations against TV Today network, management
The allegations by the TV Today network against Sameet Thakkar was that, on 15th April 2020, during the lockdown period, he had published 35 tweets on his Twitter handle at one go, making various allegations against the network and its top management.
Thereafter, he continued to publish several tweets using allegedly disparaging and derogatory language against the network, its management and also news anchors who appear on its channels Aaj Tak and India Today. The petitioners had claimed that the allegations made by Sameet Thakkar are completely baseless.
The petitioners had submitted 29 sets of ULRs to the court, which were not removed by Thakkar till date.
Hrishikesh Baruah, the counsel appearing for TV Today network submitted before the court that both the India Today Group as also Aroon Purie, news anchor Rahul Kanwal and other top management enjoy enormous goodwill and reputation in the industry, and making baseless allegations and using of derogatory and disparaging remarks against them has caused personal injury to their reputation.
Sameet Thakkar arrested by Mumbai Police
Sameet Thakkar, a Nagpur resident, got himself in soup after posting tweets against the Thackerays. He was also arrested by the Mumbai Police for posting tweets against CM Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aditya Thackeray and Nitin Raut.
Three cases were registered against Thakkar in Nagpur, VP Road police station Mumbai, and BKC Cyber Police. He approached Bombay High Court to get bail and requested the court to quash all FIRs against him. The court provided him protection from the arrest but asked him to cooperate in the investigation.
He was first arrested on October 24 by Nagpur Sitabuldi police and spent nine days in custody. He was rearrested on November 2 after the court granted him bail. BKC police then arrested him on November 10 after he got bail on November 9. He was finally granted bail in the third case on November 16.
