Delhi HC directs Google, X to take down defamatory posts on Anjali Birla
The controversial social media posts alleged that LS Speaker Om Birla’s daughter Anjali Birla had cleared UPSC in first attempt due to her father’s influence
The Delhi high court on Tuesday gave 24 hours to X (formerly known as Twitter) and Google for taking down social media posts alleging that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s daughter and Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) officer Anjali Birla cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam in her first attempt due to her father’s influence.
A bench of justice Navin Chawla opined that the alleged content was posted without “due verification” and the language of the same was not bona fide.
“The social media posts complained of do not appear to be made after due verification. The purpose of posting the impugned social media posts in 2024 and the language therein does not appear to be bona fide. Defendants number 1 and 2 are also directed to remove/block the social media content which has been complained of in the present suit till further orders,” the court said.
The court passed the order after senior advocate Rajiv Nayyar representing Birla submitted that the posts were being circulated three years after his client joined the service, in a reckless manner and without any factual assertion to tarnish Birla’s and her father’s reputation.
Birla’s defamation suit filed by advocates Aditya Bharat Manubarwala and Sanyam Khetarpal stated that she had appeared for UPSC CSE 2019 exam and had joined IRPS on April 26. The suit went on to add that a false and malicious campaign was started against her and her family even in 2021 due to her father being a political figure and it later emerged that she did not take India’s top CSE as claimed in the social media posts.
It thus underscored that the alleged posts were circulated again after her father assumed the post of 18th Lok Sabha Speaker, with an aim to cause unrest/commotion and exactly around the time when the opposition parties in the Lower House were causing uproar and unrest in Parliament and in public areas due to alleged National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examination paper leak investigation.
“The frivolous tweets, comments, posts and statements on social media platforms are also aimed at somehow connecting the Plaintiffs UPSC result to the alleged NEET Examination, 2024 paper leak which are not even remotely related to each other in any sense whatsoever. The tweets/ posts were uploaded in such a manner that they are being viewed by lakhs of people and have been tweeted/ re-tweeted thousands of times,” the suit said.
In her suit, Birla had also asserted that her private pictures were circulated from her own social media account and other public forums to paint a picture that she is a model. Such circulation, she asserted, violated her fundamental right to privacy.
“The images of the plaintiff presumably from her own social media account and other public forums is to paint a false and distasteful picture of the plaintiff being a model. The images have been taken out of context in many ways to succeed in their nefarious agendas. The content and narrative of all the videos that are the subject matter of this suit is false and there is not even an iota of truth that resides therein. The posts also portray the father of the plaintiff in a very poor light,” the suit said.
