Delhi High Court orders removal of defamatory videos against Isha Foundation

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered pulling down from online platforms videos and content published by YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh against spiritual guru Sadhguru's Isha Foundation.

Justice Subramonium Prasad said the continuous circulation of the YouTube video, having a "clickbait" title, was likely to cause harm to the trust's reputation, and restrained Singh from further publishing his allegations.

The judge, in an interim order on Isha Foundation's lawsuit, directed X (formerly Twitter), Meta and Google to remove the alleged defamatory content against the foundation of Jagadish "Jaggi" Vasudev aka Sadhguru.

The court prima facie said Singh chose to make the video based on "entirely unverified material" and restrained members of the public from uploading sharing it on social media platforms till the next hearing in May.

Before uploading the video, he published tweets and posts to promote the same, the court said.

"Till now more than 9 lakh views have already been garnered on the said video and more than 13,500 comments have been received. What is more interesting is that the title of the video is 'Sadhguru EXPOSED: What's happening in Jaggi Vasudev's Ashram?'" The order added, "The title is a clickbait and this court is of prima facie opinion that the said title has been given only to attract attention." While restraining Singh from publishing further, the court ordered the social media platforms to bring down the defamatory video and all content emanating from it.

Isha Foundation's counsel said the video uploaded on February 24 showed Singh make "false, reckless, baseless and per se defamatory" allegations against the trust, including sexual abuse against children, without any basis.

He argued Singh claimed the basis of his video were certain emails sent by persons associated with the Foundation, but their veracity was not authenticated.

"We said the emails were fabricated and false. Reputation built over decades can't be dismantled like this," the counsel said.

Reputation was an integral part of the dignity of each individual, the court said, and there was a need to strike a balance between freedom of speech, freedom of expression vis-a-vis the right to reputation.

"If the video is not taken down immediately, the complainant/trust will suffer loss of reputation which cannot be compensated monetarily," it added.