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The Delhi High Court has imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on BJP leader Shazia Ilmi for suppressing facts in her defamation suit against India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Bar and Bench reported.
Ilmi had approached the court against Sardesai over his comments on X about a video recorded after she had left a debate show on the India Today channel.
On July 27 last year, there was a war of words on X between Ilmi and Sardesai over a video posted by the journalist which showed Ilmi taking off her mic at her home during a debate on “Politics over Kargil Vijay Diwas” on the channel’s primetime show Big Debate. Read about it here.
In August 2024, the court had directed Sardesai to take down the video uploaded by him on his personal account. The court has now confirmed the earlier interim order directing the takedown of the 18-second clip, saying that the video recording, which had continued after Ilimi walked out of the show, violated her right to privacy and cannot remain online, according to Bar and Bench.
However, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora reportedly rejected Ilmi’s allegation that the video journalist, through his actions, had outraged her modesty. The court further said Ilmi was not justified in saying that the video journalist was a pervert and lecherous, according to the report. The court rejected the allegation that the video was doctored. It also asked Ilmi to pay the amount as she had suppressed two tweets part of the same conversation.
The court said Sardesai was not justified in saying that Ilmi had “chucked the mike” and “thrown” the video journalist out of her house. But it said that the remaining parts of the same tweet – with phrases such as “abuse our journalist” and “no excuse for bad behavior” – were not liable to be struck down as they appeared to have some basis.
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