The Delhi High Court on Monday sent YouTuber Mohak Mangal’s petition—seeking to transfer a copyright and trademark infringement case filed by Asian News International (ANI) from Patiala House Court to the High Court—to a bench of the Intellectual Property (IP) Division.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said that since both the ongoing matters involve ANI’s intellectual property, they could be heard together to avoid confusion. He referred to Rule 26 of the Delhi High Court IP Division Rules, 2022, which allows the Court to combine or transfer related IP cases.

The matter will now be heard by a coordinate bench of the IP Division on Friday, subject to the Chief Justice’s approval.

Earlier, ANI’s lawyer Siddhant Kumar argued that the transfer plea should have gone to a commercial appellate division as per the Commercial Courts Act. But the Court clarified that neither that Act nor the IP Division Rules stop it from acting under Section 24 of the Civil Procedure Code, which allows case transfers.

The Court also said that consolidation and transfer are closely linked, and separate rulings on similar matters could lead to confusion.

Meanwhile, ANI’s main suit—which claims defamation, trademark, and copyright infringement over Mangal’s YouTube video titled "Dear ANI"—was also listed before Justice Jyoti Singh (IP Division) today but was adjourned to late August.

ANI has also named comedian Kunal Kamra, AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, and several unnamed individuals in the case for sharing Mangal’s video on X (formerly Twitter).

Earlier, on May 29, Mangal agreed to remove some parts of the video that ANI found objectionable. Later, ANI filed a second case at the district court on June 2, targeting ten of his videos.

In his transfer plea, Mangal said that six out of those ten videos are already part of the case being heard in the High Court.

Case Title: Mohak Mangal v. ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. & Anr.