A city civil court in Bengaluru has issued an interim injunction restricting the publication or circulation of allegedly defamatory content against Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan, in connection with land encroachment allegations. The court has also asked X, Google, and Meta to block various links to such content till the next hearing on July 24, in a John Doe order passed on June 11.
The court in its June 11 order modified its earlier interim order given on June 10 to include the list of links to be blocked.
The initial interim injunction on June 10 had restricted “publishing, republishing, broadcasting, transmitting, streaming, hosting, uploading and communicating to the public in any manner on their social media platforms,” content that was “defamatory against/about the plaintiff”, Pawan Kalyan.
The June 11 order further modified it to include a list of 12 links to “impugned content sources”, directing X, Meta, and Google not to publish such content. It also directed the companies to “block all the contents from their social media platform regarding [Pawan Kalyan] which is defamatory in nature” till July 24, the next date of hearing.
The interim injunction was sought against content regarding “alleged encroachment of public land or water body” in these specified content links, the order said.
The allegations were made by YSR Congress Party mouthpiece Sakshi Media and Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS) president K Kavitha earlier this month, over a parcel of land in Hyderabad, claiming that it falls within a lake’s Full Tank Level (FTL).
TNM has earlier reported how many politicians and celebrities file ex parte applications in Bengaluru courts to secure gag orders against the media. TNM examined several such injunction orders and found that Bengaluru courts issue gag orders not only easily but also broadly encompassing all media organisations.
