being used for directly disseminating the impugned content, they are undoubtedly necessary and proper parties in the present suit. In Ramesh Hirachand Kundanmal v Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay and Others (supra), the Supreme Court has laid down the law as to who necessary and proper parties are. This is a settled legal position, and does not require any repetition or reiteration, At the prima facie stage, this Court is of the opinion that the suit is not liable to be dismissed for non-joinder of the alleged uploaders of the information or the publishers / author of the book. 2) Whether the content is defamatory? 26. The status of the Plaintiffs is well known and has already been subject matter of the earlier litigation. A perusal of paragraph 18 of the plaint shows that the Plaintiff has transcribed one of the videos, which it finds to be offending, defamatory and malicious. The said video clearly claims to be a summary of the book – ‗Godman to Tycoon – The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev‘. The publishers of the book are mentioned. The video is also conscious of the fact that the book has been banned w.e.f. 11th August, 2017, which appears to be the date of one of the orders passed in the litigation between Plaintiff No.1 and the publisher. Interestingly, the video claims that the views in the video are of those of the author of the book and that the video channel itself has no relationship with the views expressed therein. Thereafter, the video proceeds to give a summary of the book. The relevant portion of the transcription is given below: “Hello Friends! Today I am going to tell you the summary of the book ―Godman to tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev.‖ This book has been authored by Priyanka Pathak Narain who is a journalist and before publishing this book she used to cover CS (OS) 27/2019 Page 17 of 76

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