HC disposes of petition by 'Liver Doc' Dr Abby Philips, allows continued access to his X account till lower court order comes

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday disposed of a petition filed by a doctor, who is popular on social media for busting myths about health and medicine, in which he challenged a lower court order that prevented him from accessing his X handle.

Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, a hepatologist popularly known as ‘Liver Doc’, had challenged the lower court order that prevented him from accessing his X account “@theliverdr”, claiming it was disproportionate and draconian.

The Himalaya Wellness Company had obtained an ex-parte interim temporary injunction suspending the X account of Dr Philips on September 23.

The company claimed that the “myth-buster” doctor had published defamatory remarks against itself and its products like Liv-52.

Justice S G Pandit, who earlier heard Philips’ petition challenging the lower court’s interim order, modified it to the extent allowing him to access his account on the condition that he hides the alleged defamatory posts.

The undertaking given by Philips’ advocate to hide the nine alleged defamatory posts was recorded by the court.

Medical Dialogues Team had earlier reported that a trial court order, the Karnataka High Court had allowed Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips a.k.a. The Liver Doctor to access his X (formerly Twitter) account.

However, the HC bench comprising Justice SG Pandit passed this order after obtaining an undertaking from Dr. Philips to hide the alleged defamatory tweets against Himalaya Wellness Corporation and its products.

However, the doctor's counsel Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi clarified that the undertaking is without prejudice to his contentions, adds Live Law. "This Liv52 product is banned in US," he said.

Following a lawsuit filed by Himalaya Wellness Corporation, a civil court in Bengaluru had directed X (formerly Twitter) to suspend the account of Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips, who is a hepatologist from Kerala and operates the popular X handle '@theliverdr'.

The civil court bench issued such an ex-parte interim injunction order after Himalaya alleged that Dr. Philips made defamatory allegations against the company products.