The Delhi High Court has recently criticised actor Richa Chadha and several media outlets, including ABP and NDTV, for publicly “shaming” a man by amplifying unverified allegations of sexual misconduct made against him during a Delhi-Mumbai flight.
The incident dates back to March 11, when a journalist accused a co-passenger of inappropriate physical conduct during the flight. Soon after landing, she posted the allegations on social media platform X, naming the man, described as a senior professional at PricewaterhouseCoopers and sharing his photograph and professional details.
The post quickly gained traction, with multiple news outlets reporting on the incident. Richa Chadha also reposted the allegations with the remark, “Make him famous”.
The accused, however, denied the claims, stating that he remained seated throughout the journey and had fallen asleep shortly before landing. He subsequently filed a defamation suit before the Delhi High Court against the journalist, Chadha, and several media platforms.
Hearing the matter on March 20, Justice Vikas Mahajan observed that Chadha’s endorsement of unverified allegations, coupled with the “instigatory” remark, went beyond free expression and contributed to public shaming and digital vigilantism.
The Court underscored that public figures carry both legal and moral responsibility to verify facts before amplifying serious accusations.
“The Court is prima facie of the view that endorsement of unverified allegations has inflicted immediate, exponential, and incalculable harm on the plaintiff’s reputation,” the judge said.
The Court noted that Chadha had since taken down the post and expressed the expectation that she would refrain from escalating the matter further.
The judge also criticised the journalist for posting the allegations on X before filing a formal FIR, describing the action as overhasty and aimed at sensationalising the issue.
“While defendant no. 1 [journalist] has an unhindered right to report a grievance, but using social media to circulate allegations of inappropriate touching and revealing the identity of the plaintiff along with his photograph before a formal investigation even commences, in a prima facie view of this Court, is a severe transgression of the plaintiff’s fundamental right to live with dignity and have fair trial,” the Court said.
The Court further came down heavily on digital media platforms including NDTV, ABP, OBNews, and an Instagram page ‘Pardafaash Media’ for reproducing and sensationalising the claims without independent verification. It observed that several reports effectively labelled the plaintiff guilty even before any investigation had progressed.
“Such pronouncements grossly violate the foundational principle of criminal jurisprudence viz. the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and create an unwarranted parallel investigation that has the potential of severely prejudicing the ongoing investigation in the aforesaid FIR,” the Court said.
Accordingly, the Court directed the removal of the allegedly defamatory content and restrained the defendants from publishing similar allegations until the next hearing.
Senior Advocate Shyel Trehan, along with advocates Priyadarshini Dewan, Shankari Mishra, Niti Khanna, Vidhi Jain and Rohan Poddar, appeared for the plaintiff. Advocate Vanya Chhabra represented the journalist.
Senior Advocate Madhav Khuranna, along with advocates Aman Raj Gandhi, Saloni Kumar, Chattanya Sharma, Amit Badesra and Lakshay Shehrawat, appeared for Richa Chadha.
