NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday restrained a doctor, who also funds early stage start-ups, from posting online, sharing or publishing any content which defames or depracates WhiteHat Education Technology Pvt Ltd, a start-up which teaches coding to children.
The direction was issued by Justice Mukta Gupta who also issued summons to the doctor -- Aniruddha Malpani -- in the suit filed against him by WhiteHat seeking a permanent injunction restraining him from defaming it, infringing, diluting or tarnishing its trademark and seeking damages of around Rs 14 crore from him.
The court also directed Malpani to take down, within 48 hours, certain tweets which according to it were deprecatory.
With these directions, the bench listed the matter for hearing on January 14.
WhiteHat, in its lawsuit, has contended that the doctor's tweets were defamatory and tarnishes the image of the company as well as the tutors employed by it to teach coding to children.
Malpani's counsel contended in court that the suit was an "attempt by a billion dollar behemoth to muzzle free speech".
However, the court said "there has to be a difference between healthy and abusive discussion".
It also said that education does not guarantee good manners, as even the most illiterate person can be well-mannered.
The remark came in response to Malpani's counsel's submissions regarding his client's extensive educational qualifications.