Opposing aspects of
Baba Ramdev’s personality rights suit before the Delhi High Court, social media platforms on Tuesday argued that the reliefs sought in the case by the yoga guru could result in the removal of satire, parody, political commentary, news reportage and fact-checks from their platforms.
Ramdev’s suit seeks protection of his voice, image, likeness, distinctive style of speech and other attributes uniquely associated with him.
The counsels appearing for the intermediaries submitted that such directions would breach the constitutional guarantee of free speech.
They pointed out that some of the content flagged for takedown included a video of Ramdev riding an elephant, posts depicting him seeking treatment from an allopathic doctor, and commentary linking him to petrol prices. These, they argued, fell within the realm of protected expression.
Appearing for X (formerly Twitter), a counsel informed the court that 16 URLs had been identified in the plaint, of which 14 had already been taken down. He added that one of the accounts flagged by Ramdev, also the co-founder of FMCG company Patanjali Ayurved, had adopted the name “
Karl Marx”.
“So, unless Karl Marx files for personality rights, I think the plaintiff (Ramdev) is satisfied,” he remarked.
For Meta, Advocate Varun Pathak submitted that while the platform was willing to remove content that was clearly unlawful or egregious, news reporting could not be restrained under the rubric of personality rights.
“Egregious content we have no problem in removing, but the question is if a news channel reports falsely against the plaintiff, does that give him a personality right?” he said.
The intermediaries also resisted any suggestion of global blocking or proactive filtering orders.
However, Justice Jyoti Singh clarified that no prayer for a dynamic injunction was under consideration.
Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, representing Ramdev, countered that the platforms were objecting even to the removal of defamatory and disparaging material.
“In every case, the intermediary is fairer, suddenly in this case… they have used my image,” he said.
Nayar argued that the posts in question deal with Ramdev’s personality rights.
“Wherever there is disparagement affecting my personality rights, I am saying they should be taken down. I am shown that I am lying down and my chyawanprash is inducing me to go to allopathy,” he submitted on behalf of the yoga guru.
Recording the divergence between the parties, Justice Singh directed Ramdev to furnish a consolidated list of content sought to be removed, and asked the intermediaries to place their objections on record. “I will go through them and decide,” the court said, listing the matter for Wednesday.
Ramdev has sought to restrain unauthorised use of names such as “Ramdev”, “Swami Ramdev”, “Baba Ramdev” and other variants, alleging misuse through deepfakes, false endorsements and unauthorised commercial associations.
 "Social media firms resist Ramdev's plea, flag risks to satire and news")
