Delhi High Court Orders Takedown of Videos Disparaging Patanjali, Including 'Cause Cancer' Claims

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed Google and Meta to take down 19 videos allegedly disparaging Patanjali and its products by claiming they "cause cancer", calling them "zeher".

The court also restrained an identified uploader from publishing the impugned content further.

The videos also described the company's conduct as "brutal" and "fraud". The court also restrained an identified uploader from publishing the impugned content further.

Justice Jyoti Singh passed the directions while hearing an interim application in Patanjali's suit against unknown defendants, social media accounts, and intermediaries over videos allegedly disparaging its products.

According to Patanjali, the application identified 19 videos. Some contained identical content uploaded on both Instagram and YouTube. The company said the videos alleged that its products "cause cancer", referred to them as "zeher", and described its conduct as "brutal" and "fraud".

During the hearing, the court sought clarity on which URLs belonged to Meta and which belonged to Google. Patanjali submitted that since only the two intermediaries were involved, compliance would be straightforward once the URLs were identified platform-wise.

After the parties identified the URLs attributable to each intermediary, Justice Singh directed their removal.

"I'm directing you to take them down," the court said.

The court granted an injunction against the identified uploader in respect of the videos traced to him. It also directed Meta and Google to take down the remaining videos within 36 hours.

The matter has been listed before the Joint Registrar on September 1.

The interim application will next be heard by the court on December 9.