Court orders deletion of over 8.8K links in Dharmasthala case

A Bengaluru court restrained digital, print, and social media from publishing or circulating any kind of defamatory information against Harsh-endra Kumar D, brother of Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade, in connection with the Dharmasthala temple burial case and ordered the dele~tion of 8,842 links with defamatory contents.

- Agencies

Judge Vijaya Kumar Rai of the 10th Additional City Civil & Sessions court was hearing a defamation suit filed by the secretary of Sri Manjunathaswamy Temple institutions in Dharmasthala.

The court, in its order, said that while the reputation of every citizen is important, allegations against an institution affect a wider range of people.

“The Court cannot ignore the fact that though the reputation of every citizen is very important, when an allegation is made against the institution, and temple, it affects a wider range of people including the employees and students who are studying in various colleges and schools. Therefore, even a single false and defamatory publication would seriously affect the functioning of the institutions,” the order said.