The Delhi High Court has asked microblogging site Twitter to delete five purportedly defamatory tweets posted by historian Audrey Truschke about another historian Vikram Sampath, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.
The court on February 18 had restrained three academicians, including Truschke, from posting defamatory content about Sampath. On February 24 the High Court directed Twitter to take down five tweets by Truschke.
Truschke had accused Sampath of including plagiarised material in his books about Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Sampath had filed a defamation suit against them.
“Despite an injunction passed by this court in orders dated February 18, 2022, and February 24, 2022, the defendant [Truschke] continues to post defamatory material against the plaintiff [Sampath] on the platform [Twitter],” the court said on Monday.
Sampath’s counsel, Mukesh Sharma, argued that Truschke’s actions reeked of an “extremely toxic manner of white privilege”.
Sharma said, “She feels that just because she is an American of Caucasian heritage, she is entitled to violate the orders of an Indian court.”
The court said that tweets posted by Truschke had a link to a letter she had written to the Royal Historical Society, despite the publication of that communication being restrained.
“In view of the fact that the defendant [Truschke] has not submitted to the jurisdiction of this court and is not appearing in these proceedings, Twitter is directed to take down the tweets as mentioned in prayer ‘a’ of the present application,” the court said, reported Bar and Bench.
The matter will be next heard on July 28.
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