The Delhi High Court on Thursday, 19 March 2026, directed the removal of allegedly defamatory content published by Tamil magazine Nakkheeran against the Isha Foundation, granting interim relief to the organisation founded by Jaggi Vasudev.
As reported in Bar and Bench, Justice Subramonium Prasad passed the interim order in favour of the Isha Foundation and also dismissed an application filed by Nakkheeran under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), which had sought rejection of the Foundation’s suit.
The Isha Foundation has approached the High Court seeking damages of ₹3 crore from Nakkheeran and its editor Gopal, alleging that the publication had carried defamatory material. Google LLC has also been impleaded as a party to the case, as the disputed content was accessible through Google search results and hosted on its platform YouTube.
In its plea, the Foundation contended that Nakkheeran had published a series of reports containing serious allegations, including claims of exploitation, brainwashing and illegal activities within the organisation. It argued that these reports suggested that individuals associated with the Foundation were being held against their will or coerced.
According to the Foundation, these articles were published despite a prior order of the Supreme Court closing proceedings in a habeas corpus petition filed by a father who had alleged that his two daughters had been “brainwashed” by the organisation.
The controversy traces back to proceedings before the Madras High Court, which had directed the Tamil Nadu government to furnish details of criminal cases registered against the Isha Foundation, following a petition by a man claiming that his daughters, aged 42 and 39, had been influenced to reside at the Isha Yoga Centre.
Subsequently, on 18 October 2024, a Supreme Court Bench comprising then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra interacted with the two women and recorded their statements.
“We had spoken to both the ladies and recorded. Both of them said that they are living there on free will and we need to close the habeas corpus plea,” CJI Chandrachud said.
The Supreme Court accordingly closed the habeas corpus proceedings against the Isha Foundation, while clarifying that its order would not bar the police from pursuing any other investigation, if warranted.
Following these developments, the Isha Foundation moved the Delhi High Court alleging that Nakkheeran’s publications were defamatory and seeking legal remedies.
Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, along with advocates Rohan Jaitley, Mehrunissa Anand Jaitley, Areeb, Dev Pratap Shahi, Varun Pratap Singh, Yogya Bhatia, Pushpaveni, and Simarjeet, appeared for the Isha Foundation.
Nakkheeran was represented by advocates VT Perumal, Dr Ram Sankar, K Vaijayanthi, Shaarumathi, Ashwin Sam and Nagender, while advocates Aditya Gupta, Rohith Venkatesan and Vani Kaushik appeared for Google.
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