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The Delhi high court on Friday issued notices to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Ragini Nayak on a plea by veteran journalist Rajat Sharma claiming they have deliberately and wilfully not complied with the order directing them to remove alleged offensive social media posts against him.
Justice Manmeet PS Arora also issued notice to social media platform X Corp on the application filed by Sharma in his pending suit.
The high court asked the defendants to file their reply within two weeks of service of notice and listed the matter for August 22 before the joint registrar.
In an interim order on June 14, the high court had directed the three Congress leaders to remove social media posts alleging that the journalist used "abusive language" on his show the day the Lok Sabha election results were announced.
The court had said an irreparable loss and injury would be caused to the plaintiff's reputation if the videos and posts on X were allowed to remain in the public domain.
On Friday, Sharma's counsel submitted that the three Congress leaders have not complied with the high court's June 14 order even today and the posts still exist.
While the counsel for X submitted that the social media platform complied with the order on late evening of July 3, the journalist's lawyer contended that the compliance is partial as the posts have been disabled in India but can be seen elsewhere.
Sharma's lawyer said this partial compliance by the social media platform was in the teeth of a judgment of a coordinate bench, and since these posts were uploaded by the Congress leaders by IP addresses within India, they ought to have been disabled globally.
“The conduct of defendant nos. 1, 4, 5 and 6 (X and Congress leaders) has constituted willful, deliberate and contumacious conduct and also results in a serious interference in the administration of justice. It is submitted that the defendant no. 1, 4, 5 and 6 should not be heard on the merits of the matter till they purge their contempt,” the application said.
The application urged the court to hold them guilty of disobeying the order and punish them in accordance with law by detaining their named key managerial personnel in civil prison for non-compliance.
“Pass an order calling upon the defendant no. 1, 4, 5 and 6 to file affidavits declaring their movable and immovable properties and attaching the properties of the defendant No. 1, 4, 5 and 6 so declared,” it said.
The high court had earlier issued summons to the defendants including the three Congress leaders, X Corp, Google India and Meta Platforms in the lawsuit and listed it for further hearing on July 11.
Sharma's counsel had urged the court to grant ex-parte relief by ordering removal of the alleged offensive posts and videos against him on social media and restraining the political leaders from making allegations against him.
The controversy arose after Nayak accused Sharma of abusing her on national television during a debate on his show on June 4.
Sharma is the chairman and editor-in-chief of Independent News Service Private Limited (INDIA TV).
Sharma's counsel had said while the debate was happening on the channel on the evening of June 4, the Congress leaders started tweeting only on June 10 and 11.
He had contended that a clip of the show was being circulated where an abusive term had been inserted whereas the original footage did not have any such content.