Delhi HC orders removal of defamatory content alleging extramarital affair involving MP Vijaya Sai Reddy

New Delhi [India], August 14 : The Delhi High Court has ordered several news channels and social media platforms, including Google, YouTube, and Meta, to remove content alleging an extramarital affair involving politician Vijaya Sai Reddy.
Vijaya Sai Reddy is a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party. The court's decision comes in response to a legal challenge seeking to address the dissemination of defamatory material.
Recently, Justice Vikas Mahajan issued an interim order directing six news channels and several social media handles to remove the allegations of an extramarital affair against YSR MP Vijaya Sai Reddy. The court found that these allegations were unfounded rumours that could potentially harm the dignity of both Reddy and the woman involved. The order aims to prevent further damage to their reputations.
The court stated, "Based on the submissions made by Advocate Amit Agrawal, counsel for Vijaya Sai Reddy, as well as the material on record, I am of the prima facie view that there is substance in the submissions made by Advocate Agrawal. The alleged videos and posts contain defamatory and libelous allegations and insinuations, made recklessly without regard to the truth, with the intent to injure the plaintiff's reputation."
"Considering the above-noted facts and circumstances in light of the aforesaid dicta, I am satisfied that the plaintiff has made out a case for the grant of ad interim relief. I am also satisfied that grave and irreparable loss and injury will be caused to the plaintiff if ad interim injunctive orders are not passed in his favor. The balance of convenience also lies in favor of the plaintiff," the court added.
The court deemed it appropriate to direct several news channels to take down, remove, restrict access to, or block the URLs of the mentioned YouTube videos, posts on Google, videos on Facebook, and posts on 'X' (formerly Twitter) that contain defamatory statements against the plaintiff within a period of 10 days.
The injunction order issued by Justice Vikas Mahajan was directed at channels including ABN Andhra Jyothi, Mahaa News, TV5 News, BIG TV, Aadhan, and Wild Wolf TV. Vijaya Sai Reddy had approached the High Court after these channels conducted panel discussions alleging that he had an extramarital affair with a woman and even fathered a child with her.