‘Will remove posts against Gaurav Bhatia in 24 hours’: CJP’s Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka to Delhi HC | Today’s news

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka told Delhi High Court to delete social media posts against BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia, legal news website LiveLaw reported.

The posts allegedly falsely credited him with describing Swatantra Bhardwaj as “dimagi naxali” and “jaatiwaadi”. The court on Thursday recorded an undertaking by Das and Ranka to remove social media posts against BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia, including the disputed post containing an alleged quote attributed to him.

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Justice Tushar Rao Gedela heard Bhatia’s ₹2 million defamation suit. Bhatia appeared before the court in person.

This after Justice Tushar Rao Gedela today orally suggested that both Das and Rank take directions to remove the posts on X themselves. When the matter resumed after Easter, counsel for Saurav Das said that Das would retract the tweets against the lead advocate, LiveLaw reported.

“Posts will be removed within 24 hours”

Das and Ranka’s lawyers told the court that they would remove the disputed posts. The court recorded their statement and ordered the posts to be removed within 24 hours.

“This pertains to Gaurav Bhatia pantsless case before Delhi High Court. We are waiting for a copy of the order. However, during today’s hearing, the Hon’ble judge has suggested that we remove the post with Gaurav Bhatia’s pantless picture. Since the suggestion came from the Hon’ble court, and his suggestion that we should not get both cases stuck in court, we should have voluntarily undertaken to delete the posts,” Das wrote on X.

The court had earlier noted that there are different ways of protesting and told the accused that while they have the right to express their views, their statements sometimes need to be worded more clearly to get the intended message across, news agency ANI reported.

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A lawyer for Das said the tweet in question had already been deleted. However, the court pointed out that another post was also abolished.

The court also questioned the presence of Abhijeet Dipke as an accused and asked what material he had sent. Dipke’s lawyer said none of his tweets were part of the dispute.

Bhatia told the court that the case involved aggravated defamation and that the allegedly fabricated material could not remain online because it damaged his reputation and was seen by a large number of people.

He also claimed that his photo was used with a fabricated statement and that the news organization’s logo was used in the graphic, which allegedly lends credibility to the content.

Bhatia sought instructions from social media platforms X and Meta to remove the allegedly fabricated image and similar content.

However, Meta’s legal representative said the platform cannot proactively remove photos or content without a specific basis or legal direction.

The court granted Bhatia freedom to access social media platforms for similar content.

The lawsuit stems from an allegedly AI-generated graphic circulating on X that Bhatia says falsely attributed remarks to him regarding Swatantra Bhardwaj. Bhatia denied the remarks, claiming that his photo was used along with the alleged statement, creating a false impression that he was its author.

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According to the lawsuit, the post at issue was posted on Sept. 5 and received more than 1.32 million views. Bhatia asked for his removal and an unconditional apology before going to court.

The suit is looking for ₹2 crore as damages and also permanent and injunctive injunctions against the defendants. The allegations leveled by Bhatia are yet to be heard by the court.