Health Influencer to Request Removal of BournVita mentions from the popular podcast following Delhi HC court order
Last Updated on November 15, 2024 by NewsDesk SLC
Health influencer Revant Himatsingka (FoodPharmer) will seek to have all references to Bournvit removed in an interview he gave on the BeerBiceps podcast, Himatsingka’s lawyer told the Delhi High Court on Thursday.
The court was hearing an application by Mondelez India (Bournvita) which claimed that Himatsingka had breached an injunction preventing him from filing a report against Bournvita. Before Justice Amit Bansal, Himatsingka’s counsel, senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao voluntarily approached Ranveer Allahbadia (who runs the BeerBiceps channel) to remove any allegedly derogatory remarks against Bournvita.
The court stated the same in its decision adopted today. Senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, who represented Mondelez, asked that Mondelez too be allowed to personally ask Allahbadia to remove the links. However, the court refused to issue any order to that effect. “Why make it an adversary? Let (FoodPharmer) do it (ask)… The matter will be decided in ten days,” the judge observed.
The court also orally noted that there are many unhealthy products on the market today, whether because of their high sugar content or otherwise. “In a larger context, so many products sold in the market are unhealthy. It may be because of the high sugar content. I don’t want to name,” Justice Bansal observed.
The FoodPharmer advisor responded that in all fairness, the health influencer is targeting all such “unhealthy” products. Even in the case of Bournvit, the sugar content has now been reduced after his campaign, Rao said. The court noted that it did not intend to “silence” him, but may have to examine the limits of his freedom of expression.
The judge noted that he may have to visit foreign jurisprudence for this. The case will be on November 27 next year. Mondelez was sued for defamation on the basis that it published over 150 posts/videos targeting and disparaging its products “Bournvita” and “Tang”. On October 15, the court ruled that Mondelez (Bournvita) had filed a prima facie case of defamation against Himatsingka. The court therefore prohibited Himatsingke (FoodPharmer) from publishing, uploading or broadcasting any videos, publications or posts that disparage Bournvita.
Mondelez later filed a claim against Himatsingka’s remarks in a podcast interview recorded by Ranveer Allahbadia on his YouTube channel “BeerBiceps” on 7 This podcast was posted by Himatsingka on his social media “FoodPharmer” on November 8, the app added. Mondelez claimed that in this podcast, Himatsingka made defamatory references to “Bournvita”, violating an October 15 interim injunction against him. Senior advocate Rao (counsel for Himatsingka) today admitted that the health influencer had earlier shared an interview with BeerBiceps on his social networking site ‘FoodPharmer’, but added that it has now been taken down as a precautionary measure.
However, the said podcast video was still on Allahbadia’s ‘BeerBiceps’ channel. Senior advocate Rao therefore offered his client to ask Allahbadia to remove references to Bournvit from his podcast.
