HC relief to Youtuber who irked Parachute
In a plea filed by a video-blogger for a stay on an order of the Bombay High Court, in which it had directed him to remove a video of his review of Parachute coconut oil, as it found the video disparaging in nature, another bench of HC has stayed the order.
A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre stayed the earlier order of January 15, 2020 by a single judge bench of Justice SJ Kathwalla. Now, the video will not have to be removed, but Youtuber Abhijeet Bhansali has been asked to make some modifications to it. The modification will be in some parts of the video, the phrase ‘It’s not worth the money you pay’ will be used.
The order authored by the Chief Justice said four instances of falsehood (on the part of the Youtuber) stated in the earlier order were incorrect. It also pointed out that the company admits the oil marketed by it is not extracted from fresh coconuts and it uses dried coconut.
“Thus, the stand of the respondent (company) accepts the statement of facts made by the appellant (Youtuber) in the video that the claim of the respondent projected by displaying a fresh coconut split into two with water dropping, obviously suggestive of the coconut oil being extracted from fresh coconut, is false,” it said.
The order further said counsel for the company has urged it is justified in puffing. “Yes it is! But the appellant is also entitled to call off the bluffing,” it said.
In February last year, Marico, the company that manufactures Parachute, had filed a suit against Bhansali seeking to restrain him from publishing or circulation of the video titled ‘Is Parachute coconut oil 100% pure? The suit had alleged that Bhansali had made false and unsubstantiated claims. The Youtuber had defended his video saying that its objective was to educate viewers and the statements in the video were his bonafide opinion.