Saket Court prohibits posting, circulation of defamatory video against Guruji Ka Ashram Trust

The District Judge, Saket Courts (South-East), New Delhi, has granted an ad-interim ex-parte injunction against the YouTube channel, YouTube and Google circulating content against Guruji Ka Ashram Trust.

A suit seeking permanent injunction and damages in respect of a defamatory video uploaded by a YouTube channel was instituted by Guruji Ka Ashram Trust, through Karanjawala & Co.

The defendant YouTube channel has been directed to take down the impugned video forthwith and the court has further restrained them from re-uploading or disseminating the same during the pendency of the suit. District Court has also extended the restraint to unknown entities (John Does), prohibiting them from posting, publishing or circulating content against ‘Guruji’ or the Plaintiff Trust.

Sandeep Kapur, Senior Partner at Karanjawala & Co., argued that the video employed scurrilous expressions designed to malign the reputation of ‘Guruji’ and his global following. Upon a prima facie assessment of the material placed on record, Court observed that the imputations made in the video were defamatory in nature and warranted immediate judicial intervention.

Judge Sachin Mittal was told that a Registered Public Charitable Trust was formed and settled by " Guruji" with philanthropic objectives and earned an enormous goodwill and reputation. On January 15, 2026, the defendant which owns and operates a YouTube channel, "Molitics" uploaded a video with the title, "Jai Guru Ji Ke Bhakt Thagi, Balatkar aur Fraud mei shaamil hai? I Fraud Baba by Neeraj Jha". Court was further told that disparaging and defamatory words such as "loot", "thagi", "fraud baba", and "balatkaar" were used in the thumbnail of the said video. The impugned video was alleged to be causing grave harm to the reputation and goodwill of the Trust, its late founder, GuruJi: his followers and Trustees in the eyes of public at large.

It was further argued that defamatory content targeting “Guruji” is being repeatedly uploaded by various entities across digital platforms, and by the time remedial action is initiated, such content garners lakhs of views, causing irreversible harm. Kapur emphasized the urgent necessity of preventive relief to curb the rapid and unchecked dissemination of such content.

In these circumstances, it was urged that the present case warranted the grant of a John Doe injunction to effectively restrain unidentified perpetrators from continuing such acts of defamation.

The court watched the 17 minutes long video where per se defamatory terms, such as "loot", "thagi", ''fraud baba" and ''balatkaar'' have been uttered. It went on to observe, "Defamation is an injury to a person's reputation. Every person has a right to maintain and preserve his reputation un-assailed. The law of defamation protects the reputation. A person's reputation, which is her precious possession, can not always be measured in terms of money. In the present case, the alleged defamatory video has been uploaded on a social media platform, YouTube, which can be accessed by any person in the world and the impugned video can also be shared to several thousands persons all over the world by a few clicks. The plaintiff has raised serious questions, which are to be decided during hearing of the suit. In case, plaintiff is successful in establishing its case, it would be entitled to the reliefs sought. The Court is, thus, satisfied about prima facie case aspect. The Court is also of the view that the prejudice, which the plaintiff would suffer if the impugned video is allowed to be published/circulated on the internet, would be greater than the one, which would be caused to the defendants, if they are injuncted. The injury to the reputation, being not measurable in terms of money, would be irreparable".

The Trust was represented by Sandeep Kapur, Senior Partner; Manmeet Kaur, Partner along with Advocates Gurtejpal Singh, Rose Verma, Saurav Mishra, Jai Dogra and Saurabh Jha from Karanjawala & Co.