Remove derogatory content against Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Google told

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The Delhi High Court has directed Google to remove, within 36 hours, derogatory content posted by a blogger against Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Justice Manmohan Singh, hearing a defamation case filed by followers of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, also issued notice to Google and Jitender Bagga who allegedly posted derogatory contents against motivational guru and his Art of Living.

"In case, interim order is not passed, the plaintiffs will suffer irreparable loss and injury. Thus, till the next date, the defendant No.2 (Google) is directed to remove all defamatory content about the plaintiffs posted by the defendant No.1 (Jitender Bagga) on defendant No.2's website http://.blogger.com/ [2] within 36 hours from date of knowledge of the order passed by this Court," the court said, in its interim order.

"The defendant No.1 (Bagga) is restrained from sending any e-mail, posting any material over the Internet which has a direct or indirect reference to the plaintiffs or the Art of Living Foundation or any member of the Art of Living Foundation, or His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar," the court further added while passing the order on Wednesday. It was made available Thursday.

Seeking a permanent injunction, Vyakti Vikas Kendra, India Public Charitable Trust with some followers of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had filed a suit against the blogger and Google saying that they are aggrieved, and hurt on account of certain highly defamatory materials posted on a website.

Seeking damage amount of over Rs 5 crore, the plea said: "Jitender Bagga has been indiscriminately sending e-mails and has published a large number of blogs on the website http://www.blogger.com/ [3], which have highly vulgar, disgusting and abusive references towards His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, owner of Art of Living Foundation, and towards various other persons associated with the Art of Living."

Seeking response from Google and Bagga, the court posted the matter for May 30.