The Delhi high court on Friday directed the Centre’s Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) to decide within 15 days on a plea seeking the removal of a video by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee allegedly disparaging Hindu deities.
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The direction was made by a bench of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, who was hearing a petition filed on July 1 by advocate Amita Sachdeva seeking court’s direction to GAC to decide on her complaint regarding the removal of the video. The petitioner contended that the video’s contents were harmful, hurtful and defamatory, and that the matter had remained pending with the panel for nearly three months since she filed the complaint on March 27, despite the statutory mandate to decide within 30 days of filing a complaint.
“The GAC shall decide the petitioner’s appeal expeditiously within 15 days. Any disregard of the court’s order will be taken seriously,” the court said in its order.
According to the plea, the video, uploaded by Rathee on YouTube on March 21, 2026 wherein he allegedly said that Hindu gods consumed meat and alcohol.
Representing the Union government , additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma, along with advocate Avshreya Rudy, asserted that the video was disparaging towards Hindu deities and thus the same was non-tolerant.
Sharma argued that the mere pendency of the appeal before the GAC did not prevent the intermediary from taking down the content, further contending that the intermediary should either voluntarily remove the video or comply with a judicial direction ordering its takedown.
Lawyer representing Google LLC submitted that the appeal was pending before the GAC and the platform had submitted its response.
In her petition, Sachdeva said she had filed a grievance before the resident greviance officer of YouTube on March 23, seeking immediate removal of the video, but YouTube responded by stating that they were unable to identify any violations of their community guidelines. Following non action by YouTube, she moved the GAC.
To be sure, Sachdeva had also filed a complaint against Rathee in the trial court seeking registration of an FIR against him. In her complaint, Sachdeva alleged that the video contained insults to Sanatan Dharma, distortion of Hindu scriptures, spreading of anti-Hindu sentiment, and incitement of religious disharmony, all of which are grave offences that require urgent attention.
