Alok Kumar Brara v. Sarah Jane
CS(OS) 199/2018
In the High Court of Delhi
Before Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw
Decided on May 13, 2019

Relevancy of the case: Deactivating a fake account for publishing defamatory/derogatory tweets.

Statutes & Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 2(1)(w))

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The plaintiffs filed the case against certain tweets tweeted from a fake Twitter handle @SarahJa90007013 which were defamatory, derogatory and abusive.
• The said Twitter account was used solely for defaming the plaintiff. It did not have any identity of the defendant, i.e., there was no real person in the name of Sarah Jane.
• The plaintiff approached Defendant Number 2 (Twitter – an intermediary), but no action was taken against the tweets by Twitter.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The plaintiff sought a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from defaming him and a mandatory injunction directing Twitter to take down the page and disclose the identity of the user of the handle. In addition, he sought damages for his loss.
• The counsel for the plaintiff soon noted that Twitter suspended the account, yet wanted the intermediary to disclose the identity of the user handle.

Opinion of the Bench

• Though the bench acknowledged that the case had many implications, it allowed for the disposal of the suit since the plaintiff was not seeking any other relief.

Final Decision

• The bench, hence, directed Twitter to deactivate the said Twitter account and left the parties to bear their own costs.

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