The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary to implead the persons responsible for uploading alleged objectionable, sexually-toned content against him on social media platforms in his defamation suit.
Choudhary, a National Conference leader representing the Nowshera Assembly constituency, has sought a permanent and mandatory injunction alleging that defamatory content featuring his images and videos has been circulated on multiple social platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.
A single-judge bench of Justice Amit Bansal allowed Choudhary’s application seeking advancement of the hearing date, preponing it from January 13, 2026 to December 16.
During the hearing, Choudhary’s counsel pressed for urgent orders to remove the content from the internet, submitting that his client’s face had been “plastered all over with a woman in viral videos.”
Responding to this submission, the bench remarked, “Your face has been there for over one year and you have just woken up now. So, therefore, it is a false sense of urgency. I understand what you are saying but let them (uploaders) come, then we will pass an order.”
The court asked counsel for Meta Platforms to furnish the IP address and basic subscriber details of the uploaders to the plaintiff within three days and further directed: “Let the plaintiff take steps to implead the uploaders and serve them with an advance copy of the suit.”
Earlier, the court had noted that the plaintiff had not filed transcripts of the alleged videos and posts. Without this material, the court said it could not determine whether the content was defamatory. It had directed Choudhary to place on record the content and transcripts.
The plaintiff’s counsel submitted that the objections relate to material uploaded nearly two years ago and many of the URLs refer to media reports.
