Sri Sri Ravi Shakar insulted; Google dragged to court

New Delhi, May 11: In yet another case of online censorship, the

has given a deadline of 36 hours to online search giant,

to remove derogatory content posted by a blogger against Art of Living founder

. Based on a defamation case filed by followers of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the court issued notice to Google and Jitender Bagga, who allegedly posted the derogatory content on Sri Sri and the Art of Living.

The court in its interim order said, "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://www.blogger.com/ within 36 hours from the date of knowledge of the order passed by this Court."

The court while passing the interim order further added, "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 defamation suit filed by Vyakti Vikas Kendra, India Public Charitable Trust along with some followers of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar against the blogger also saw a permanent injunction against both the blogger and Google. They cited that they were aggrieved and hurt on account of certain highly defamatory materials posted on a website.

The plaintiffs were seeking a damage amount of over Rs 5 crore with the plea stating, "Jitender Bagga has been indiscriminately sending e-mails and has published a large number of blogs on the website http://www.blogger.com/, 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."

Awaiting response from Google and the blogger Bagga, the court has posted the matter for May 30.

OneIndia News