ARVIND KEJRIWAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sheer magnanimity of reputational injury caused by posting defamatory content against a person who holds his reputation dear to him, which may often be dismissed as a mere tweet or retweet, has been urged to be examined, persuading this Court to adjudicate this critical issue since now the Cyber World turns Whispers into Symphony.

(2.) In today's digital age, the dynamics of law change, as exemplified by the present case, where this Court has been posed with a situation where reputational harm has been alleged by the complainant by a repost in cyberspace. In this evolving digital age, physical damage to someone's reputation is not the only possibility but it is the cyber world which now has taken over the real world, where if any defamatory statement is made, the effect of reputational harm is amplified. In the realm of defamation, statements made in the physical world may resemble a mere whisper, but when echoed in the cyber domain, the impact magnifies exponentially.

(3.) The issue before this Court through the present petition is one which requires this Court to lay down certain principles based on jurisprudence of defamation, in the light of the evolution of cyberspace, and its extensive usage as a means to damage the reputation of someone. The Court is posed with a situation where an alleged defamatory content has been posted by an original author, and then the same content has been retweeted/reposted on the popular social media platform "Twitter" (now 'X') by the present petitioner.