Justice Subramonium Prasad refused to pass a take-down order for a “majority” of the content flagged by Chadha and asserted that criticism in the form of satirical humour does not automatically make it offensive or defamatory.
“A public figure should not be so thin-skinned so as to complain about any criticism of his decisions and such criticism ought to be viewed with humility,” said the judge.
Chadha, who has exited the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to join the BJP, earlier filed a lawsuit in the high court against the publication of alleged malicious and fabricated social media posts that, he said, were gravely prejudicial to his reputation and personality rights.
In the interim order, Justice Prasad said that while some of the content flagged in the plea reeked of malice and they maligned Chadha’s reputation, the “majority” appeared to be “satirical expressions of the plaintiff’s decisions in the political sphere”.
The court observed that certain posts in question contained explicit, profane and vulgar content, which fell outside the purview of “harmless satirical humour”, and directed the social media platforms to take down their links within two weeks till further orders.
