ADDICTIVE LEARNING TECHNOLOGY LIMITED Vs. ADITYA GARG

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The captioned suit has been filed seeking a decree of permanent injunction along with damages. The subject matter of the suit are the tweets published by defendant Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5 on the social media platform known as 'X' (formerly 'Twitter'), which has been impleaded as defendant no. 3 in the present suit. It is the case of plaintiff Nos. 1 and 2 that the impugned tweets are harmful and derogatory to the said plaintiffs and has defamed plaintiffs in Cyber Space.

(2.) This Court considered it fit to examine the plaint and the documents on the basis of a demurer and assess the contentions therein, particularly since it was prima facie apparent to this Court that there was no cause of action for defamation on the basis of which the suit was filed. Post the detailed assessment of the case at hand given below, this Court indeed concluded that plaint fails to disclose cause of action and, therefore, the present plaint ought to be rejected. Case setup by the Plaintiffs

(3.) In the plaint, the plaintiffs have challenged two (2) tweets published by defendant no. 1 and one (1) tweet published by defendant no. 4, which forms part of a 'Conversation Thread No. 1' initiated by defendant no. 1 on his personal X handle. Similarly, the plaintiffs have challenged two (2) tweets published by defendant no. 2 and one (1) tweet published by defendant no. 5, which forms part of a 'Conversation Thread No. 2' initiated by defendant no. 2 on his personal X handle. 3.1. It is stated in the plaint that the conversation threads initiated by defendant no. 1 and defendant no. 2 are reactionary and finds its genesis in a tweet which was first published by plaintiff no. 2 on his personal X handle at 11:20 a.m. on 22/6/2024 ('Lead Tweet'). It is stated in the plaint1 that the plaintiff no. 2 posted the said Lead Tweet in good faith, with the intention of shedding light on a significant trend in the legal industry that impacts law students, law firms and educational institutions. It is stated that the said Lead Tweet was intended to motivate law students, who may not have the financial means to attend top National Law Universities ('NLUs'). Conversation Thread No. 1 (Inter-se between Defendant no.1 and 4)