Education
Delhi High Court orders Law Prep Tutorial to stop using CLAT topper’s identity
Google and Meta have 72 hours to pull content that a judge called a defamatory campaign against a rival coaching firm.
DELHI: India’s fiercely competitive law-entrance coaching industry has landed in court, and a Delhi judge has wasted little time in drawing battle lines.
The Delhi high court on April 13th passed an ad-interim order in favour of Toprankers EdTech Solutions Private Limited, which runs the coaching platform LegalEdge, and Geetali Gupta, the student who secured All India Rank 1 in the Common Law Admission Test 2026. The order, passed by Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, restrains LPT EdTech Private Limited, which operates under the name Law Prep Tutorial, from using Gupta’s name, images or identity in any form across digital platforms.
A topper, a turf war and a rejected sponsorship deal
The dispute has its roots in a familiar story: a prized student, two rival coaching firms, and a falling-out over who gets the credit. According to the plaintiffs’ submissions, Gupta was enrolled in LegalEdge’s Champions Batch I programme and had credited the platform publicly for her result. Her association with Law Prep Tutorial was, the court was told, limited to mock tests and a handful of classes.
Following the declaration of results, Law Prep Tutorial allegedly approached Gupta and her family with an offer to sponsor her five-year college fees in exchange for exclusive association. The family declined. What followed, the plaintiffs say, was a sustained digital campaign against LegalEdge and against Gupta herself.
Content published across YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and other social media platforms included a video titled “CLAT 2026 AIR 1 Geetali Gupta Controversy Exposed” and a blog post styled as an exposé of the rivalry between the two firms. The plaintiffs alleged these contained defamatory statements accusing LegalEdge of fraud, unethical practices and making false claims about toppers. AI-generated and morphed images were also said to have been circulated, including material falsely associating Gupta with Law Prep Tutorial and depicting LegalEdge’s directors in a damaging light.
What the court found
At the prima facie stage, Justice Gedela found that the blogs, posts, reels and other material on record appeared disparaging and designed to damage LegalEdge’s reputation. The defendants, the court observed, had prima facie carried out a defamatory campaign using content that appeared to have been published wilfully. The use of Gupta’s name and likeness, including AI-generated material, was found unjustified, particularly given that she had publicly credited LegalEdge and had asked the defendants to stop using her name. The court noted pointedly that the student had been drawn into the dispute as a “pawn.”
The orders
The directions are sweeping. Law Prep Tutorial and associated persons are restrained from publishing, sharing or disseminating any defamatory or derogatory content against LegalEdge across any digital platform. They are further barred from using Gupta’s name, identity or images in any form, including AI-generated or manipulated content. They are also prohibited from deleting or tampering with any internal data or communications relating to the campaign.
Critically, Google and Meta, covering YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, have been directed to disable, block access to, remove or suspend all identified content within 72 hours of the order being uploaded. The case, numbered CS(COMM) 344/2026, is listed before the joint registrar on July 14th and before the court on August 24th. Toprankers was represented by senior advocate J. Sai Deepak, alongside Ankur Khandelwal, Ravi Vaswani and Anchit Oswal, briefed by Zentrum Law Partners.
The case is a sharp reminder that in India’s cutthroat test-preparation industry, the fight for a topper’s endorsement can end up costing far more than a college sponsorship ever would.
Education
Scaler appoints new heads for its online and offline businesses
Amar Srivastava becomes chief executive of the online business and group chief product officer; Vidit Jain takes charge of the offline schools
BENGALURU: Scaler is shuffling its top deck as the AI skilling race heats up. The Bengaluru-based tech education company has elevated two senior executives to lead its online and offline businesses, signalling a sharper push into an AI-driven market.
Amar Srivastava, previously senior vice president for product and business, has been appointed chief executive of the online business and group chief product officer. Vidit Jain has been elevated to senior vice president and head of Scaler School, taking charge of the company’s offline education units, the Scaler School of Business and the Scaler School of Technology.
The company has also recently appointed Ratnakar Reddy as head of enterprise for India and the Middle East and North Africa, with a brief to drive partnerships with governments and enterprises for AI-led skilling programmes.
Abhimanyu Saxena, co-founder of Scaler, said the promotions reflect the company’s confidence in both leaders and the direction it is heading. “Amar and Vidit have been central to Scaler’s journey, and their elevations reflect our conviction in their leadership and the direction we are shaping as a company,” he said. “With leadership now in place across the business, we remain focused on building engineers the world’s best companies want to hire. In an AI-first economy, that mission is more urgent and more achievable than ever. Our next chapter is centred on building an AI-native workforce from India, equipped to compete in a technology-driven global economy.”
Srivastava brings over a decade of experience building education-focused ventures. He previously founded Intellify and was part of the early team at Doubtnut. At Scaler, he will lead the online business with a focus on growth, profitability and expansion into new segments, while strengthening the product ecosystem across the group. He is blunt about what the AI economy actually needs. “The AI economy does not have a shortage of tools. It has a shortage of engineers who can think clearly, build reliably, and keep learning as the ground shifts. That is what we are building toward,” he said.
Jain brings more than 15 years of experience across startups and consulting, including stints at MPL and McKinsey and Company. He will oversee growth and profitability of Scaler’s offline business. His priorities are immediate and unambiguous. “The offline experience is where depth gets built, and that depth is critical in the AI era. Over the next 12 months, our focus will be on consistent growth, stronger unit economics, and delivering outcomes for students while building long-term employer partnerships,” he said.
Founded in 2019, Scaler is valued at $710 million and backed by Peak XV Partners, Tiger Global and Lightrock India. Its parent firm, InterviewBit, has featured on the Financial Times’ Asia Pacific High Growth Companies rankings every year from 2021 to 2025. On average, Scaler’s learners see a 4.5x return on investment and a salary increase of around 126 per cent.
With leadership locked in across every business unit, Scaler is betting that the next wave of global tech hiring will be won or lost on the quality of engineers coming out of India. It is a big bet. But the numbers, and the promotions, suggest the company is in no mood to hedge.
