The Delhi High Court on Friday directed a social media account Ranting Gola to delete a post about advocate and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gaurav Bhatia over his appearance on a television news show, which was widely shared online, Live Law reported.The matter is related to a defamation suit filed by Bhatia.In September, the BJP leader had appeared on a News18 programme hosted by journalist Amish Devgan, during which a camera shot showed him wearing a kurta without pyjamas or pants. The video clip was widely shared on social media. Bhatia later said he had been wearing shorts.On Friday, the bench told the social media user Shamita Yadav, whose account is named Ranting Gola, to takedown the post immediately, saying that it would cause prejudice to Bhatia if it remained on the social media platform X.Bhatia had alleged that the account had uploaded a post on December 19 that allegedly showed wilful disobedience of an interim order passed in his defamation suit on September 25, according to the legal news outlet.The counsel for Yadav told the court that her client was a content creator and was not affiliated with any political party. “My Twitter handle says that I am a comedian,” The Wire quoted the lawyer as saying, contending that the post was satirical and within the protection of free expression.The counsel also contended that the post referred to on Friday were not covered by the court’s injunction order in September, Bar and Bench reported.However, the bench expressed reservations, the legal news outlet reported.On September 25, the High Court had said that it will issue directions for removing the allegedly defamatory posts and videos on social media about Bhatia’s appearance on the television show.A bench of Justice Amit Bansal had said at the time that if the posts are not removed by the users who uploaded them, intermediary platforms such as Google and X that host the content would be directed to take them down.The counsel for Bhatia had argued at the time that the content had been “taken in the privacy” of Bhatia’s home and should not have been shared without his consent.Bhatia had also argued that he had been disturbed by posts referencing “male private parts” and the use of offensive words by the Samajwadi Party’s social media unit. “Such words are not to be used in public discourse,” his counsel had said.The posts could not be classified as free speech and amounted to defamation, Bhatia had argued.The defamation suit filed by Bhatia named 22 defendants, including SP’s social media unit, Congress leader Ragini Nayak, Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bhardwaj, journalist Abhisar Sharma, news outlets such as Newslaundry and News18, and content creators including Ranting Gola, Rofl Gandhi.Besides, Google and X were named as intermediary platforms hosting the content.Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.