Public figures must be ready for brickbats: Delhi High Court

COurts cannot forestall people from making play of public figures unless the remarks ar humiliating or disparaging, the new delhi heights court observed on Monday, adding that individuals in the public eye must be prepared to face criticism and occasional brickbats.A bench of justice Tushar Rao Gedela made the observation while hearing Patanjali Ayurveda managing director Acharya Balakrishna’s plea seeking protection of his personality rights.“You have newspapers, you have cartoonists. They do make caricatures, and they do make fun of people, right? Now, whether that can be taken now?” the bench remarked. “If you are going to be a public figure, please be ready for brickbats too. People will make fun. We can’t stop that, unless it is disparaging or something that puts your respect down or humiliating.”This came after counsel for search engine Google submitted that Balakrishna was seeking the removal of certain news reports, commentary, and caricatures relating to proceedings against him before the Supreme Court without impleading the concerned news organisations and content creators as parties.Calling the prayer “very dangerous”, the counsel said such suits could not be used to wage a proxy battle against social media intermediaries.To be sure, the Supreme Court in August 2024 closed the contempt proceedings against yoga exponent Ramdev and Balakrishna after accepting their undertakings to refrain from issuing misleading advertisements or claims about Patanjali products. The case, filed by the Indian Medical Association in 2022, alleged that Patanjali’s advertisements promising cures for lifestyle diseases violated the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954and the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1954.Senior advocate Arvind Nayar, appearing for Balakrishna, said that content connected with the top court judgment need not be taken down. He added that Balakrishna enjoyed a significant following across both urban and rural areas, where many people, owing to limited digital literacy, may find it difficult to distinguish authentic material from manipulated content such as deepfakes, fabricated videos, or artificial voice-overs. The senior advocate, however, sought time to seek instructions from his client regarding the content that he wanted to be removed.Considering the contention, the court adjourned the matter for Tuesday.Meanwhile, another bench of justice Jyoti Singh directed Indian men cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir to withdraw his plea seeking an interim injunction against content allegedly violating his personality rights. “Counsel for the plaintiff seeks to withdraw this application (interim injunction) with liberty to file a fresh application with the same cause of action with complete and better particulars. The application is disposed of as withdrawn with liberty as prayer for,” the bench said and posted the matter for March 25.