The Delhi High Court has directed the Samajwadi Party and its media cell to delete a “defamatory” post on X (formerly Twitter) against BJP’s IT chief Amit Malviya within four days.

In an interim order issued on Friday on Malviya’s suit against the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Samajwadi Party Media Cell, the court said if the defendants do not remove the post, X will have to remove it within 36 hours of receiving a notice to do so.

Malviya had filed a complaint after a post was published on the SP media cell account on August 3 accusing him of sexual misconduct.

The court found that the accusation was extremely offensive and that a person’s reputation is an integral part of his personality and cannot be unjustifiably tarnished under the guise of freedom of expression.

“In these circumstances, the respondents Nos. 1 (Samajwadi Party Media Cell) and 2 (Samajwadi Party) are directed to remove, restrict access to or block the URL of the post uploaded on X containing defamatory statements against the plaintiff within a period of four days,” Justice Vikas Mahajan said in the order uploaded on the court’s website on Saturday.

“In case Defendants Nos. 1 and 2 fail to remove, restrict access or block the above URL within four days, the plaintiff (Malviya) is free to approach Defendant No. 3 X and request him to remove the URL in such case within 36 hours of the request,” he said.

In the complaint, Malviya said that following his post on X describing outrage over the brutal gang rape of a minor girl in Ayodhya, the Samajwadi Party’s media cell “hit back with a personal attack” and falsely accused him of sexual misconduct.

In its order, the court stated that it considered that the allegations that the post was a “retaliatory post containing defamatory and slanderous allegations and insinuations made recklessly and without regard to the truth with the aim of damaging the reputation of the plaintiff, who is a public figure by virtue of his professional profile” were valid.

“The reputation of a person is an integral part of his personality and cannot be unjustifiably tarnished under the garb of freedom of expression. The complainant is the Chairman of the NITD of the national political party and also the joint in-charge of the West Bengal unit of the BJP and the ill-considered allegations of this nature made in the objectionable post not only bring his name into disrepute but also have the potential to adversely affect his political career built over the years,” the court said.

It was stated that the public reputation of political officials should not be undermined by baseless and defamatory statements made by political organisations for their own benefit.

If no interim injunction is granted in his favour, the plaintiff will suffer serious and irreparable losses and damages, the court said, while issuing a summons to the SP and its media cell regarding the suit.

Malviya’s legal counsel had argued in court that the August 3 post on ‘X’ was “defamatory” and “absolutely scandalous”, had serious negative implications for his reputation and urgent instructions were required to remove the post.