VADODARA: Delhi high court has directed a Noida resident and some social media platforms to remove defamatory videos on Amul products. This follows a post by the resident, Deepa Devi, in June claiming she had found a centipede in an Amul vanilla tub purchased from Blinkit, sparking an internet furore.
A bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora passed the order recently after lawyers for Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (AmulFed) — the maker of Amul products and owner of its brand — told the high court that the Noida resident had failed to appear before the court despite several notices and opportunities.
Jayen Mehta, managing director of GCMMF, called it a “milestone” verdict. “This has established that a consumer has no right to recover money by illegal and defamatory posts misusing social media,” said Mehta.
In an interim order last month, the high court had directed Deepa to take down her posts. Later, the court issued another order, stating that the defamatory content should be removed from all social media platforms, including X, YouTube and Meta. Justice Arora issued the order on July 24 after hearing the lawyers for GCMMF and some social media platforms.
The high court had ordered that if the video and the post, or parts of them, are found uploaded on the platforms, they shall all have to be deleted.
“Amul shall bring the same to the notice of the social media and the concerned URLs shall be taken down by them within 36 hours,” the order states.
The court observed that the URLs of the posts had already been provided to the counsels for X, YouTube, Meta and other platforms. If requests to take down URLs cannot be acceded to, the social media platforms will have to intimate Amul within 48 hours to enable it to seek redress in accordance with the law, the HC’s order added.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation’s Mehta explained the significance of the order.
“In the history of Amul, this is the first milestone judgment to prevent social media misuse by any consumer,” Mehta said.
A bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora passed the order recently after lawyers for Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (AmulFed) — the maker of Amul products and owner of its brand — told the high court that the Noida resident had failed to appear before the court despite several notices and opportunities.
Jayen Mehta, managing director of GCMMF, called it a “milestone” verdict. “This has established that a consumer has no right to recover money by illegal and defamatory posts misusing social media,” said Mehta.
In an interim order last month, the high court had directed Deepa to take down her posts. Later, the court issued another order, stating that the defamatory content should be removed from all social media platforms, including X, YouTube and Meta. Justice Arora issued the order on July 24 after hearing the lawyers for GCMMF and some social media platforms.
The high court had ordered that if the video and the post, or parts of them, are found uploaded on the platforms, they shall all have to be deleted.
“Amul shall bring the same to the notice of the social media and the concerned URLs shall be taken down by them within 36 hours,” the order states.
The court observed that the URLs of the posts had already been provided to the counsels for X, YouTube, Meta and other platforms. If requests to take down URLs cannot be acceded to, the social media platforms will have to intimate Amul within 48 hours to enable it to seek redress in accordance with the law, the HC’s order added.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation’s Mehta explained the significance of the order.
“In the history of Amul, this is the first milestone judgment to prevent social media misuse by any consumer,” Mehta said.