NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed journalist and YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh to remove a video on Dera Saccha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh uploaded by him, from all social media platforms after observing it a ‘prima facie’ defamatory.
“The video seems to be prima facie defamatory vis-à-vis the plaintiff (Ram Rahim),” Justice Jasmeet Singh noted while asking the video to be deleted within 24 hours.The video contained material based on trial court’s judgment, had quoted passages from a book, the court noted. However, it found that no disclaimer was attached to the YouTube video.
The high court, however, granted liberty to Shyam Meera Singh to upload a new video with a disclaimer stating the contents are quoted from trial court judgment on the self-style godman’s conviction and a book written by Anurag Tripathi.
Ram Rahim had filed the defamation suit in the high court against the Youtuber over an uploaded video alleging that the former had fooled his followers.The 56-year-old Rahim claimed in his petition that he had served a legal notice to Singh but the latter refused to take down the video, forcing him to knock on the doors of the HC for appropriate directions against Singh.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur on behalf of plaintiff Ram Rahim, argued that the video can be viewed by the devotees across the globe and also jeopardises his right to fair trial.It was also argued by the counsel that the timing of uploading the video is questionable as the same is done at the time when Singh’s appeal against his conviction is due for hearing.
YouTuber’s counsel pointed out that the video was based on the trial court judgment and a book titled “Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim” by Anurag Tripathi.To this, Justice Jasmeet Singh said, the YouTuber is quoting a judgment and quoting contents of a book.
“..If you want, I’ll tell him to delete the video and add a disclaimer that you have quoted from such and such judgment and such and such book and that it is not my personal views. What else do you want him to say? I cannot if he is quoting a judgment or a book which you have not taken any action on… What’s so wrong?,” the court asked.
Rahim is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence in Rohtak’s Sunaria in a rape case, in which he was convicted by the Special CBI court in August 2017. In 2019, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Rahim was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and he received another life sentence for the 2021 murder of one of his employees.