High Court Transfers ANI's Copyright & Trademark Infringement Suit Against YouTuber Mohak Mangal From Delhi Court To Itself

The Delhi High Court has transferred to itself the copyright and trademark infringement suit filed by Asian News International (ANI) against YouTuber Mohak Mangal before city's Patiala House Court.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora directed that the suit be tried along with ANI's defamation and disparagement suit against Mangal pending before the High Court on September 08.

“Having considered the facts of this case, keeping in view the commonalities of parties involved in both the suits, the facts pleaded in the plaint(s) as well as the cause of action stated therein, this Court is satisfied that overlapping of issues of fact and law will arise for consideration in both the suits,” the Court said.

It added that the objection raised by ANI to the relief of transfer of suit was without any basis and that the trial of both the suits in the same forum would indeed be convenient to the parties, including the news agency.

“This Court also finds merit in the submission of the Petitioner that hearing of both the suits together before the same forum would be in the interest of administration of justice as it would save judicial time and avoid conflict of orders, as it involves common issues of fact and law,” the Court said.

“Therefore, the reliance place by Respondent No. 1 on Section 15(5) of Act of 2015 for seeking transfer of this petition to be placed before the Division Bench of this Court fails to persuade this Court; and the objection raised by Respondent No. 1 to the jurisdiction of this Court is not substantiated,” it added.

ANI had filed a defamation, disparagement and infringement suit before the Delhi High Court against Mangal and others over the YouTube video titled “Dear ANI”.

The suit also named comedian Kunal Kamra, AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair and unknown entities (john does) as defendants for sharing Mangal's video on their X Corp (formerly Twitter) handles.

On May 29, Mangal agreed to take down certain portions from his YouTube video which were offending as per the news agency.

ANI then filed a suit before the district court on June 02 impugning 10 videos posted by Mangal, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.

In his transfer plea, Mangal claimed that six out of the ten videos impugned before the patiala house court are same videos that were already alleged to constitute copyright infringement before the High Court.

Title: MOHAK MANGAL v. ANI MEDIA PVT. LTD. AND ANR

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 923

Click here to read order