ANI vs Mohak Mangal: The YouTuber agrees to edit video to remove defamatory content, Delhi HC accepts plea to retain amended video and not delete it

The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed YouTuber Mohak Mangal to remove certain parts from his video against Asian News International (ANI). While the court had initially said that the video contains defamatory language and it must be taken down, later the court agreed to Mangal’s plea to remove only objectionable comments from the video and retain the edited video.

By agreeing to this plea, the court rejected ANI’s plea to remove the video altogether. The court made the oral observation while hearing a defamation suit filed by ANI against Mohak Mangal.

Notably, Comedian Kunal Kamra and AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair are also named as defendants in the case for sharing the video. Zubair managed to got his name removed from the case by voluntarily offering his tweet sharing the video. However, as Kunal Kamra declined to do so, the court asked him to remove the tweet containing defamatory words for ANI like thugs and mafia.

ANI had filed the case after Mohak Mangal posted a video on YouTube claiming that ANI was extorting money in exchange of removing copyright strikes on his channel for using ANI footage in his videos. After seeing the video in the courtroom, Justice Amit Bansal said Mangal should have put out his message in a more civilised manner.

The judged then asked Mangal’s counsel to take instructions from his client on taking down the video. The judge initially rejected the plea to remove only the objectionable parts. “Takedown. Whoever is using this kind of language, take instructions,” the single-judge bench said.

Senior Advocate Amit Sibal, son of Kapil Sibal, and advocate Sidhant Kumar appeared for ANI. Sibal said that Mohak Mangal could have rejected the proposal to buy ANI subscription to use its videos, but instead he posted defamatory material against the news agency. “He starts a media campaign against me that has spiraled into a concerted campaign which is nothing short of vilifying and per se defamatory. They are calling me (ANI) thugs, extortionist, gunda, other expletives,” he added.

On the other hand, Mangal’s counsel Senior Advocate Chander Lall said that ANI has no right to force him to buy its licence, saying that if he pays ₹40 lakh for subscription and they his channel is blocked, he will be stuck as he will still have to pay. He also highlighted that ANI offered to allow the video to remain if the amount was paid.

When advocate Chander Lall said that his client will edit the video to remove the objectionable parts, the court declined, saying the entire vide must be taken down.

However, when the court reconvened after lunch break, the court accepted the proposal to edit the video, and asked to rework it. The court agreed to the argument that Mangal’s right to express his opinion can’t be curtailed, and only defamatory language must be removed.

Mangal’s counsel Lal said that for now the video will be put in private mode, and after both parties decide on the amendments to remove objected portions, the edited video will be published. The counsel presented the ‘red line portion’ of the video which will be removed. The court agreed to this plea, saying that Mangal can repost the video after removing the objected content.

The court in its order said, “defendant 1 (Mangal) shall put the impugned video in private mode and make the necessary amendments in the video so as to remove objectionable portions as indicated in the hearing. The red line version of the video after removing the portions shall be supplied to plaintiff counsel during the course of the day”.

Notably, while the court had said that Mangal should remove the video and upload a new video without the defamatory content, Mangal’s counsel resisted this. When asked why, he said that the video was being monetised, and if it is deleted, entire revenue earned on it will vanish. Therefore he proposed to keep the video private for now, and then edit it without deleting it, so that the revenue remains. The court agreed to this argument.

While ANI’s counsel Sibal insisted that the video must be removed, after court agreed on edited video, he mentioned several other portions that need to be removed, apart from those proposed by Lal.

The court noted that Mohak can retain the part where he said ANI is not fair, as it is an opinion and not defamatory. The judged said, “You will take out “ghatiya”, “Boht chant hain” “mai ANI ke sath negotiate krne nahi aaya”… The full sentence will have to go. Then next “wasooli” , next “kidnap karlete hain”, and then “hafta vasooli”…”

The High Court stated that Mohak Mangal is allowed to quote and paraphrase his conversation with ANI employee. Moreover, the court also stated that the emails will be shown without blurring.

The court said that it will order X to remove posts sharing the video. The next day of the hearing has been fixed on 31 July.

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