The Bombay High Court has come to the aid of the jewellery chain Malabar Gold and Diamonds by asking various social media platforms to pull down the posts portraying the brand as a Pakistan sympathizer. Such posts were made as an outcome of the company’s engagement with a Pakistani social media influencer for the promotion of its new showroom in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The High Court was considering the case of Malabar Gold and Diamonds Limited, a jewellery brand operating in India and engaged in the manufacturing and trading of jewellery.

The Single Bench of Justice Sandeep V. Marne held, “Considering the submissions canvassed by Mr. Engineer, in my view, a case is made out for grant of ad-interim injunction in favour of the Plaintiff for pulling down the posts, list of which alongwith URL is already provided at Exhibit-J to the plaint. Similarly, the Defendant Nos.1 to 7 on whose platforms defamatory material is being published against the Plaintiff, deserves to be restrained from permitting publication of any further defamatory material against the Plaintiff qua the influencer arrangement made by it with Ms. Alishba Khalid.”

Senior Advocate Naushad Engineer represented the Plaintiff, while Advocate Harit Lakhani represented the Defendant.

Factual Background

The plaintiff claimed that it had plans to establish a new showroom in Birmingham, United Kingdom (UK) and to promote the same, the Plaintiff had engaged social media influencers as a part of its marketing strategy. One of the principal influencers provided by the eighth Defendant (JAB Studios) for promoting Plaintiff’s show-room in Birmingham, UK was a Pakistani Instagram Influencer, Alishba Khalid, who is a resident of the UK. It was alleged that the said influencer had publicly condemned India’s surgical strike during Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.

According to Plaintiff, the arrangement for engagement of the social influencer had taken place much before the Pahalgaon attack, and the engagement of Khalid was done in the absence of knowledge on the part of the Plaintiff about her connections with the neighbouring country. It was the plaintiff’s case that several posts/materials/stories were being posted on social media platforms against the Plaintiff by random persons seeking to connect the Plaintiff with the neighbouring country. On account of Plaintiff hiring the services of a social influencer criticising India’s Operation Sindoor, it was being portrayed through such posts that Plaintiff is a sympathiser of Pakistan.

Plaintiff contended that this was being done strategically at the instance of competitors to ensure that Plaintiff’s business during festive times suffers. A list of 442 URLs containing defamatory posts was also provided to the Court. The Plaintiff accordingly sought an injunction against the Defendants from publishing any further defamatory content against it and for the removal of content already published on the social media platforms.

Reasoning

Considering the submissions, the Bench held that a case was made out for the grant of an ad-interim injunction in favour of the Plaintiff. Granting interim protection in favour of the plaintiff, the Bench directed, “Defendant Nos.1 to 7 shall pull down and delete all the posts/materials/stories details of which are reflected in the chart at Exhibit-J to the plaint.”

“Defendant Nos.1 to 7 shall not permit publishing of any further defamatory material against the Plaintiff qua the arrangement made by the Plaintiff for engagement of Ms. Alishba Khalid as a social influencer to promote its products and business”, it further ordered.

The Bench further ordered the Plaintiff to provide the details of URLs to the Defendants (Meta Platform including Facebook, Instagram etc.) in respect of posts/materials/stories containing any defamatory material arising out of Plaintiff’s engagement of Khalid as a social influencer. “In case Defendant Nos.1 to 7 have any doubts/defamation regarding any of the URLs reported by the Plaintiff, they shall inform the Plaintiff of the same, in which case, Plaintiff shall be entitled to approach this Court and seek appropriate relief in respect of those URLs”, the Bench directed.

Cause Title: Malabar Gold And Diamonds Limited v. Meta Platforms Inc. (Case No.: Interim Application (L) No.30690 of 2025)

Appearance

Plaintiff: Senior Advocate Naushad Engineer, Advocates Amrut Joshi, Premlal Krishnan, Uazad Udwadia, Rehmat Lokhandwala, Abuzar Khan, M/s. Pan India Legal

Defendant: Advocates Harit Lakhani, Varun Pathak, Amee Rama, Vishesh Sharma, Richa Bharti, Anannya Gogoi, M/s. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., Advocate Tanvi Rana

Click here to read/download Order


Bombay High CourtJustice Sandeep V Marne

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.