New Delhi:
The Delhi High Court has directed a Noida resident to delete her social media posts in which she claimed to have found a centipede in a tub of Amul ice cream she had bought.
Justice Manmeet PS Arora, while hearing a case filed by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which markets products under the Amul brand, restrained the client from posting and uploading identical or similar content on social media platforms until further orders.
Deepa Devi on June 15 shared a photo in a post on social media platform 'X' that allegedly showed a centipede in her tub of Amul ice cream, which she ordered through an instant delivery app.
The plaintiff company argued in court that the claim was false and incorrect because it was absolutely impossible for any foreign substance, let alone an insect, to be present in an ice cream tub packaged in its factory.
In an order dated July 4, the court noted that the lack of cooperation from customers, who have also been absent from the current proceedings, has given credibility to the company's position.
It was noted that the customers were given the opportunity to participate in the lawsuit and substantiate the claim they made in their social media post, but they chose not to appear and also refused to hand over the tub of ice cream to the company for the purpose of the investigation.
“The non-appearance of defendants Nos. 1 and 2 (Deepa Devi and her husband) proves their refusal to cooperate in the forensic examination and verification of their claims about the dead insect in the social media posts uploaded on 15.06.2024,” the court said in an ad interim ex-parte order passed in the case.
“Accused Nos. 1 and 2 are directed to forthwith delete the social media posts made by them on the Twitter/X account of accused No. 1 with the name @Deepadi11. This should be done within 3 days,” the court ordered.
Until further notice, they are prohibited from “posting or uploading any content identical or similar to the post in question” on ‘X’ or any other social media platform including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
They are further prohibited from “publishing or causing to be published any content relating to the plaintiff or the plaintiff's product relating to the incidents alleged in the complaint anywhere on the internet or in any print or electronic media until further orders are issued,” it added.
The court made it clear that if the defendants do not remove the social media posts within three days, the company can send a letter to 'X' requesting them to remove them from their platform.
The company that filed the case was represented by senior advocate Sunil Dalal and advocate Abhishek Singh. The company claimed that it was willing to investigate the matter and had even contacted the customers on June 15. However, the company refused to provide the ice cream tub to the officials.
It was argued that numerous stringent quality controls take place at every stage – from the procurement of raw milk from the farm, to the production of the ice cream in the claimant's state-of-the-art ISO-certified factories, through to the loading of the finished product into specially designed, temperature-controlled refrigerated trucks.
The court was assured that stringent quality controls absolutely ensure that no physical, bacterial or chemical contamination is added to the product. It also ensures that each product meets the standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
The plaintiff argued that a forensic examination could be conducted by any government laboratory as it could effectively determine whether the insect was actually present in the container of ice before it was sealed and packaged.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
