Isha Foundation vs Google LLC & Ors

Headnote AI-drafted · Reviewed and approved

The Plaintiff, Isha Foundation, a registered Public Charitable Trust founded by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, filed a suit seeking permanent injunction and damages against Google LLC (owner of YouTube), a Tamil weekly magazine Nakkheeran, and its Publisher/Editor, alleging that eleven defamatory videos uploaded on YouTube channels 'Nakkheeran TV' and 'Nakkheeran Neo' maligned the image of the Trust, its Founder, and its followers. The suit sought removal of the offending content, restraint on future publication, and damages of Rs. 3 crore against Defendants 2 and 3.

The Court was called upon to dispose of two interlocutory applications: I.A. No. 31798/2025 filed by Defendants 2 and 3 under Order VII Rule 11 CPC seeking rejection of the plaint on grounds of lack of territorial jurisdiction and want of authorization for filing the suit, and I.A. No. 30090/2025 filed by the Plaintiff under Order XXXIX Rules 1 & 2 CPC seeking ad-interim injunction. Following settled law, the Court first addressed the jurisdictional objection raised by the defendants before proceeding to examine the merits of the injunction application.

The Court noted that it is trite law, as affirmed in Asma Lateef v. Shabbir Ahmad (2024) 4 SCC 696, that a specific objection to jurisdiction must be considered before evaluating the merits of an interim injunction application. The judgment proceeded to examine the averments raised by Defendants 2 and 3 challenging the maintainability of the plaint before the Delhi High Court.

Catchwords: defamation · injunction · YouTube · online platform · intermediary liability · territorial jurisdiction · rejection of plaint · Order VII Rule 11 CPC · ad-interim injunction · trust · religious organisation · Tamil magazine · social media