Shazia Ilmi defamation case: Rajdeep Sardesai withdraws appeal against court order that directed him to take down Ilmi’s unauthorised video

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai withdrew his appeal on Wednesday (2nd July) against a Delhi High Court order that directed him to remove an 18-second-long video of BJP leader, Shazia Ilmi, which was shot without her consent, from his social media.

Sardesai had appealed against an interim order passed by a single bench of Justice Manmeet Singh Arora on April 4, 2024, that granted partial relief to Ilmi in a defamation suit filed by her against Sardesai. In the order, Justice Arora asked Sardesai to take down the video citing that it violated her right to privacy. Besides, the judge imposed a cost of ₹25,000 on Ilmi for concealing certain tweets. In his appeal, Sardesai challenged the order of the single bench on the ground that Ilmi had concealed facts.

However, the journalist withdrew his appeal after a division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Renu Bhatnagar expressed reluctance to interfere in the matter. The court told Sardesai that he infringed her privacy. “You are clearly infringing on her privacy. Once interview is over…Once she has gotten up, moved away she wasn’t coming back…there is clearly someone following her. Don’t take our comments on this, we are telling you. The learned single judge has mildly left you out. It was clear breach of privacy. That once she has gotten up, you can’t be following her. And in her house? What else will she do…Once consent ended, she has gotten up…” the court said.

Background of the case

The defamation suit arose from an incident that happened during an India Today debate on Agniveers and Kargil Diwas July 26, 2024, in which Ilmi participated. She allowed an India Today cameraman to record her at her residence during the debate. However, Ilmi chose to leave the debate following Sardesai’s heckling and her audio being muted. But the cameraperson continued to film her despite her requests to stop recording.

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