Thread by @barandbench

#DelhiHighCourt will hear today @vikramsampath petition against historian @AudreyTruschke and two others who have accused him of plagiarism.

@vikramsampath has approached the High Court seeking Rs 2 Crore in compensation from these historians and an injunction on publication of the letter where allegations of plagiarism were raised.
barandbench.com/news/litigatio…

Justice Amit Bansal will start the hearing shortly.

#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism
@vikramsampath @AudreyTruschke

Hearing starts.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Advocate Raghav Awasthi appears for @vikramsampath
Awasthi: I am the biographer of VD Savarkar. The sum and substance of allegation against me is that I have plagiarised but I have cited everybody.

Awasthi now refers to Truschke's letter to the Royal Historical Society.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Lawyers point out that the Bench is not visible.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya appears for @Twitter
He says he will have no problems if the Court passes an order for removal of tweets.

Awasthi now reads the February 11 letter to Royal Historical Society.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Bench: You have to show me whether you have plagiarised or not.
Awasthi: This letter has very conveniently omitted the fact that I have cited the sources and that it was a speech not an article.

Bench: All three of them wrote the letter? And they are saying you copied from Dr Chaturvedi? So how do you justify that you have not copied?
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Awasthi: I have given all the references. These references are there.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Bench: First allegation is that you have plagiarised the work of Mr Chaturvedi and then Mr Bakhle right?
Awasthi: Yes.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Awasthi: I have given extensive footnotes for all this in my book.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Awasthi now refers to @vikramsampath biography of VD Savarkar.
Awasthi: My submission is that I have cited all the professors and I have very clearly noted the essay from which the paragraphs have been extracted.

Awasthi now refers to portion of the book which refers to Savarkar's arrest.
Awasthi: I cannot possibly change the fact that he was arrested because these are matters of records.
Bench: What about the subsequent line?

Awasthi: I have cited everybody. Ultimately as a scholar the only capital I have is my reputation.
Bench: What about the tweets?

Bench: You are aggrieved by the letter as well as the tweets?
Awasthi: Yes, the letter is the reason for the tweets. I will be an academic pariah if this is allowed.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Advocate Jawahar Raja appears and informs that he is appearing for one of the defendants.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Bench: He has made a prima facie case.
Raja: There are two issues. First is infringement and the others is plagiarism.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Raja: He has referenced some of the articles but when you borrow the entire idea that is not enough. Sentences have been lifted verbatim. My concern is that the issue of reputation but it also goes to heart of plagiarism. The questions is that are these citations enough.

Bench now asks Awasthi to refer to his prayers.
Awasthi reads.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Bench: This letter has been written the Society right? Has this letter been published anywhere?
Awasthi: Yes.

Bench: Mr Poovayya what do you say? Is this letter available on twitter?
Poovayya: I cannot have any objection to grant of the prayer. It says the letter have to be taken down, it can be done.

Poovayya: As far as the tweeting and commenting of the letter is concerned I cannnot to anything. It is not for intermediary to get involved in that.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Raja argues that he should be heard before any order is passed.
Bench: I am not saying any letter should be withdrawn at this stage. I am talking about those tweets.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Poovayya refers to Abhishek Baxi and Ashok Swain's tweet.
Only prayer I will have is the order should specifically identify these two tweets: Poovaiyya.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Bench: How do you link this tweet to the letter?
Awasthi: First the letter was published and then the tweets came.

Bench: So we will pass the injunction on publication of letter and then for these tweets to be taken down.
Poovayya: The plaintiff does not identify the url for the letter. They should file an application identifying the urls.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Bench: At this stage, I need a prima facie view. At this stage they have shown that proper references have been given.

Court now dictates order:
Issue summons...
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Order:
The allegations made are that the plaintiff has plagiarised the works of Dr Vinayak Chaturvedi, Dr Janki Bakhle and Dr Shepel. It is contended by the plaintiff that wherever the extracts have been taken, the same has been cited and given credit...

...It is further contended that publication of letter at various social media platform has caused great harm to the reputation of the plaintiff as a know academic.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Order:
The plaintiff has shown that he has given due credit and footnoted the said works. It is further averred that on the basis of publication of the letter on twitter, defamatory tweets are being posted.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Order:
In my view a prima facie case is made. the continued publication of the letter has been causing considerable damage to the plaintiff's reputation and career. Balance of convenience is also in his favor and irreparable damage will be cause if the injunction is not granted.

Order:
Sr Counsel for twitter said that if urls are provides,the same will be taken down by them. Mr Raja appearing on behalf of D-3 seeks time to file reply and opposes grant of ad-interim injunction.

Order:
Consequently, till then ext date of hearing, the defendants are restrained from publishing the letter or any other defamatory material on twitter as well as any other online or offline platforms.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

Raja asks for a shorter date.
Bench: Let a copy of the plaint be supplied to defendants. Written statement in four weeks, rejoinder in two weeks.

Next date of hearing is April 1.
Hearing over.
#DelhiHighCourt #plagiarism #vikramsampath

[BREAKING] Delhi High Court grants ad-interim relief to Vikram Sampath; restrains Audrey Truschke, others from publishing defamatory content

report by @prashantjha996

#vikramsampath #DelhiHighCourt @AudreyTruschke @vikramsampath

Read story: bityl.co/AzCR

Sampath's plea also has tech journalist Abhishek Baxi, Professor Ashok Swain, Twitter and MEITY as defendants.

#vikramsampath #DelhiHighCourt @AudreyTruschke @vikramsampath @baxiabhishek @GoI_MeitY @TwitterIndia

Read: bityl.co/AzCR

Raghav Awasti appeared for Vikram Sampath

Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya appeared for Twitter.

Jawahar Raja appeared for one of the Defendants.

#vikramsampath #DelhiHighCourt @AudreyTruschke @vikramsampath @baxiabhishek @GoI_MeitY @TwitterIndia @poovayya @raghav355