Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that she will remove her social media post on X Corp (formerly Twitter) calling BJP MP Nishikant Dubey a "fake degree kism ke aadmi" (a person of fake degree kind).

The statement was made by Mahua's counsel before Justice Tushar Rao Gedela who was hearing the defamation suit filed by Dubey against Moitra and former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.

Garg's counsel told the Court that a request will be made to the podcaster concerned for blocking the relevant portion of the video where Dubey was referred to as "blackmailing kism ke aadmi".

During the hearing, Justice Gedela told Garg's counsel: “Except for the blackmailing word, there is nothing else. You do one thing. Cut that sound out. Block that blackmailing word, that's all…. We are not saying anything to you. You may have a point. We are going to give you time. Either you will agree to brought that sound [out] or we will tell you to do it. It's up to you. It's your podcast, you cannot use a word like this. Please understand that. Suppose they said you are a blackmailer, would you take it lightly?”

“Here are two persons who have got a repute. You think we don't understand this? Defendant maybe a person of repute, we are not disputing it but surely you cannot use a word like blackmailer, for anybody for that matter unless a person is held to be that. It is absolutely derogatory,” the judge added.

On instructions, the counsel informed the Court that the proadcaster will be requested to mute the relevant portion and that Moitra will delete her tweet.

The counsel also said that Garg was talking about the GDP numbers and that his comments were made only after certain personal remarks were made against him by Dubey.

For context, Dubey had sent a legal notice to Garg on September 21 over alleged defamatory remarks describing him as a “blackmailing kind of person” and claiming that he had approached Garg to seek a favour from the Chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

The legal notice alleged that Garg made the remarks during a podcast or interview with one Shalini Kapoor Tiwari on September 17, which was subsequently published and circulated on YouTube, Facebook and other digital platforms.

On the other hand, Moitra had tweeted Garg's video saying “Ye fake degree kism ke Aadmi hai.”

According to the notice, the impugned remarks contain two distinct allegations: first, that Dubey is a person who resorts to blackmail to get his way; and second, that he approached Garg to use his position as a member of the LIC board to get the LIC Chairman to do certain work for him.

The legal notice said that the allegations are false, baseless and malicious, and that they damage the reputation of an elected public representative.

The notice contended that describing a sitting Member of Parliament as a “blackmailer” imputes criminal and dishonest conduct, while the allegation of seeking favours from senior government officials portrays him as abusing his position and influence.

The notice also argued that the right to freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India does not extend to defamation, and that the right to reputation forms an integral facet of Article 21.

It further stated that the circulation of the podcast and subsequent uploads, excerpts and reposts aggravates the alleged injury to Dubey's reputation.