Himalaya Vs hepatologist: HC Allows Dr Philips to Access X Account, Conditions Applied
Karnataka High Court
Bengaluru: Modifying a trial court order, the Karnataka High Court has 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.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that 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.
Apart from issuing directions to suspend the X account of Dr. Philips, the court also restrained the doctor from tweeting or publishing any defamatory remarks against the Himalaya Wellness Corporation.
Filing the lawsuit, Himalaya had alleged that due to the derogatory statements posted by Dr. Philips, Himalaya faced substantial reduction of business. It was further alleged that the concerned statements and materials posted on the X account of Dr. Cyriac were false. Himalaya further alleged that the doctor was posting such contents because of the cut throat competition with the products of Cipla and Alchem and the doctor was making such posts with the intention of promoting such latter products.
The petitioner company also relied upon the orders passed by the Supreme Court, Karnataka High Court, Madras High Court and Delhi High Court while considering such matters.
Referring to those judgments, the civil court noted, "A reading of the said judgments would sensitize one as to the gravity of the consequences of such materials being posted on the platform like the one noted supra. The judgments also indicate that there is a need to issue adinterim ex-parte injunction directing the party who is posting such materials to remove them at the earliest so as to minimize the damage caused to the person who is affected by such postings in any manner like loss of reputation, loss of income in monitary terms and disservice to the consumers who are benefited by the products like Liv-52."
After the Civil Court suspended his account, Dr. Philips moved the Karnataka High Court bench against the Civil Court's ex-parte injunction order to suspend his X account @theliverdr. The Civil Court had also restrained him from tweeting or publishing any defamatory remarks against the Himalaya Wellness Corporation.
As per the latest media report by Live Law, the counsel for the doctor Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi submitted before the Court, "This amount of disproportionate order could not have been passed by the trial court. Could my entire account be suspended?"
While considering the doctor's plea, the Court indicated that it would grant interim relief if the user undertook to remove all derogatory tweets. As the doctor's counsel agreed, the Court ordered, "Petitioner undertakes to hide the offending tweets so far as respondent 1/plaintiff (Himalaya) and its products. The said undertaking is placed on record. [Trial court] Order to that extent is modified."
The matter has now been listed on November 2, 2023, for further hearing. Meanwhile, the Court has also issued notice to X Corp.
