Pradeep Poonia requests "Discovery" records which WhiteHat Jr denies; Next hearing Feb 1

WhiteHat Jr. vs Pradeep Poonia: Pradeep Poonia presented his case in the court today. The second hearing on defamation suit though, couldn't be complete due to server errors. Thus, the court will hear the case on February 1. The case hearing, though short, saw some compelling arguments from Poonia's side. He had requested documents from ASCI and National Consumer Helpline to know the complaints (and complainants) against WhiteHat Jr. He also demanded records of the child "Wolf Gupta" to present his side of the case.

Pradeep Poonia on several occasions has called WhiteHat Jr, a scam. Thus, his arguments depended on proving how WhiteHat Jr is misleading parents to get enrolments. Not only that, he has presented evidence against the company that it fakes reviews on the PlayStore app and through Twitter handles. Calling the requests "discovery", Pradeep said that WhiteHat Jr opposed his requests. He also said that they didn't want the documents out in open as they "must be scared of what might come".

What happened in the hearing?

Both the sides presented the second hearing in front of Justice Jayant Nath, Delhi HC. Swathi Sukumar, Adv for Poonia said that she had filed several applications including applications for condonation of delay. There were a total of four applications that even asked for the documents from the company WhiteHat Jr. To this, Adv Rajasekhar Rao (for WhiteHat Jr) stated that the litigation demanded that WHJ has to spend money to procure the documents while the case prima facie is of Pradeep Poonia hacking into the system of WHJ.

"There is a vacation of an injunction," stated Sukumar. "I'm pressing another application against third parties for the production of documents" . When the court asked her why the documents were important, she stated that these documents were important for the proceedings and vacation of an interim order.

The hearing couldn't go on because of some server issues in the High Court. The next hearing is on 1st Feb.

What will happen next?

Apparently, the defamation suit is just not about Pradeep Poonia hacking into WHJ system. WHJ CEO Karan Bajaj has also stated that Poonia has defamed the company with baseless allegations of mistreatment of women employees, misleading advertisement strategies and using the pseudonym WhiteHat Snr.

Many people on social media support Pradeep Poonia and have called bluff on WHJ's policies. They have called the company, fraud and misleading. Especially targeting parents of 4+ kids and manipulating them to make them 'tech-enthusiasts' is something many people in India are disapproving. But many think this is a tactic by a competitor of WHJ to defame the company. Yet, many think that by going to the extension of a defamation suit, the company has shown that they do not take criticism and feedback nicely.

But, only time and, well, Delhi High Court will tell what course will the company carry forward.

Read the case followups here.