Following the Delhi High Court’s appeal, the CJP consents to remove posts criticising Gaurav Bhatia of the BJP: “Attacking without verifying”

Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) spokesperson Saurav Das claimed that senior advocate and BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia had referred to Swatantra Bhardwaj as a “dimagi naxal” in posts that the Delhi High Court dismissed on Thursday. Das and the party’s co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka then promised to remove the posts within a day. Making accusations without adequate confirmation is “not correct,” according to a bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela. The judge went on to say that there are several methods to protest and that it could be necessary to express oneself more clearly.

“There are different ways of protesting. Do you really need to go to this? You are all youngsters; you may want to express so many things. But attacking certain things without verifying may not be correct. There is a lot of anxiety around nowadays. You are youth and you have the right to express. But sometimes expressions may need to be put in a more articulate manner. There are other ways of handling it. You are youngsters, and you have a long way to go. Why do you want to spend time in courts?” the judge said to Das’s lawyer.

Das and Ranka’s commitment was made while the court was considering Bhatia’s defamation lawsuit. After Das posted an AI-generated image on X claiming that Bhatia had referred to Bhardwaj as a “dimagi naxal” on September 5, Bhatia filed his lawsuit, which also names CJP founder Abhijit Dipke and co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka.

After Bhatia gave Das a day to take down the post and offer an unequivocal apology, Das later removed it. But Das stated on X that the image was created by AI and asked Bhatia whether he “disagreed” with the claim made about him.

During the hearing, the court urged Meta and X to remove similar messages in the future if Bhatia flags them, but declined to immediately stop Das and Ranka from publishing any further content due to their undertaking. In the slander lawsuit, however, the court issued a summons. Das, Ranka, and Abhijit Dipke, the party’s founder, were asked to respond by the court. Advocate Nakul Gandhi represented Dipke.

This occurred after Bhatia claimed that another tweet had been sent during the hearing and asked the court to issue an injunction. He maintained that, especially in light of the account’s millions of followers, such behaviour should not be tolerated.

The lawsuit was filed just hours after the CJP and other politicians organised a large-scale demonstration at the Parliament Street police station. On Friday, the Delhi Police detained a 21-year-old right-wing content creator who was allegedly responsible for seriously injuring a 38-year-old man during the Jantar Mantar protests in June.