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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh to take down the defamatory video on YouTube that was uploaded by him titled “How Gurmeet Ram Rahim Fooled His Bhakts?” The video is currently in 'private mode' as per the directions of the court. 

The bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh also granted liberty to the YouTuber to upload a fresh video, giving a disclaimer. 

During the hearing today, Singh apprised the single judge bench that in the video uploaded by him on YouTube, he has quoted judgments of various courts and the contents of a book titled "Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim: A Decade-long Investigation", authored by Anurag Tripathi.

The YouTuber also informed the court that the contents of the video are not his personal opinion but based on material that is already in the public domain. 

The court said, "This is an ad interim injunction application seeking to restrain Shyam Meera Singh from publishing the video. I have gone through the transcripts of the video uploaded. The video contains material that is based upon the judgments of trial court as well as quotes passages from a book. However, there is no disclaimer attached to the video; for that reason, the video seems to be prima facie defamatory."

"Defendant shall remove the offending Video from YouTube and is at liberty to upload the video with a disclaimer as to portions that are quoted from the judgment and potions which are quoted from the book- Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim. The removal of the video from all the social media platforms shall be done within 24 hours from today," the court directed. 

"With these directions, the application is disposed of", court said.

On Monday, the court had expressed displeasure and warned Singh about contempt proceedings against him for the tweets he had posted.

Last week, YouTuber Shyam Meera Singh assured the court that he would take down the tweets that he posted against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The counsel for the plaintiff had said a legal notice was sent by his client on December 21 to YouTube and Shyam Meera Singh, who uploaded the alleged video. He had submitted that the video was “clearly derogatory, disparaging, and denigrating.”.

“He (Shyam Meera Singh) is a habitual offender... After we put him to notice, he puts out a comment on Twitter (now known as X) saying, ‘I’m not going to delete these videos’. Totally defiant. He has also been accused by the UP administration of insulting the Chief Minister. An FIR came to be registered at the instance of a UP resident,” the counsel had said.

In 2017, the Dera chief was sentenced to 20 years in prison for allegedly raping two women disciples. In 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his employee, Ranjit Singh. In 2021, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for another murder—that of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.

Case Title: Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan Shishyeva Gaddinashin Shah Satnam Singh ji Maharaj v. YouTube LLC and Anr.