Politicians must possess “a little more thick skin” while dealing with public criticism, the Delhi high court said on Tuesday, even as it indicated to pass an order on Thursday to take down the allegedly defamatory content on social media targeting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and senior lawyer Gaurav Bhatia.

A bench of justice Amit Bansal was dealing with Bhatia’s defamation suit against various individuals and entities, including Samajwadi Party (SP) media cell, Newslaundry, journalist Abisar Sharma, politicians Ragini Nayak, Saurabh Bhardwaj for publishing allegedly defamatory content related to a viral video of Bhatia’s recent appearance on a TV debate.

The incident occurred on September 12 during News18’s prime-time show Aar Paar, hosted by Amish Devgan, where Bhatia was purportedly seen wearing a kurta without any pants/pyjamas. The video had sparked a storm on social media.

Bhatia, represented by advocates Simran Brar and Raghav Awasthi, claimed that he was wearing shorts and that the cameraman had inadvertently captured the lower half of his body. Awasthi stated that his primary grievance was with the SP’s media cell. Bhatia had previously served as the SP’s spokesperson before joining the BJP.

The suit seeking ₹2 crore as damages argued that the continued circulation of videos, links, and posts was resulting in irreparable damage.

Bhatia, who appeared before the court in person, submitted that people on social media could not be allowed to use derogatory words concerning his appearance on TV. He added that remarks made in the matter were by “irresponsible persons on the other side calling themselves media houses.”

Google, represented by advocate Mamta Rani, argued that some of the content sought to be taken down were unrelated to the matter. She further argued that the court should initially direct the individuals concerned or entities to take down the content, and only if they fail to do so should the responsibility to remove it fall on intermediaries like Google.

Considering the contention, the court directed Bhatia’s counsel to prepare a detailed list of the offending URLs and said that it would go through the material and pass an order on Thursday. The bench, however, clarified that it would injunct defamatory material but would not restrict satirical content.

“When you’re in politics, you have to have a little more thick skin. I’ll go through it (the content). I’ll do this exercise (to take a call on what would constitute defamation and satire),” the bench said.

It added, “We have to be very careful, the Supreme Court in the latest judgement says you should not pass ex parte orders. So we will have to be very careful. Let us keep the matter on Thursday, let me go through the material, and we’ll pass an order (on interim relief). The posts containing references to private parts and all that, that I will surely injunct.”

The Supreme Court on Monday observed that it is time defamation should be decriminalised as it stayed a trial proceeding against news portal The Wire on a complaint filed by former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Amita Singh over a news report alleging that she submitted a dossier on an alleged sex racket in the University.