New Delhi, April 2 -- A public figure bears a legal and moral responsibility to verify the veracity of facts before leveraging their platforms to amplify grave accusations, the Delhi High Court held, while criticising actor Richa Chadha for publicly "shaming" and amplifying unverified claims against a man accused of sexual misconduct by a woman on a Delhi-Mumbai flight.

"The Court is prima facie of the view that endorsement of unverified allegations has inflicted immediate, exponential, and incalculable harm on the plaintiff's reputation...[it] transcends mere free expression and acts as a catalyst for public shaming and digital vigilantism," a bench of justice Vikas Mahajan said in a March 20 order, released on Tuesday.

The court also ...