Madras High Court
Prathiba vs The Secretary To Govt Of India on 25 August, 2023
Author: N.Anand Venkatesh
Bench: N.Anand Venkatesh
Writ Petition No.24379 of 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED: 25.08.2023
CORAM
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.ANAND VENKATESH
Writ Petition No.24379 of 2023
Prathiba
W/o.N.Balaji ... Petitioner
Vs.
1.The Secretary to Govt of India,
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MEITY),
Electronics Niketan,
6, CGO Complex,
Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003.
2.Nodal Officer,
The Superintendent of Police,
No.3, Dr Natesan Road,
Police Training College, 3rd Floor,
Cyber Crime Wing,
Ashok Nagar, Chennai-83.
3.News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority JSDL,
Rep. by its President,
Mantee House, C-56/5, 2nd Floor,
Sector 62, Noida-201301.
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Writ Petition No.24379 of 2023
4.Press Council of India,
Rep. by its Secretary,
1st, 2nd and 3rd Floor,
Soochna Bhawan,
8, C.G.O. Complex, Lodhi Road,
New Delhi-110003.
5.The Deputy Commissioner of Police,
62, Old Post Office Road, Near Railway Station,
Opposite Collector Office,
Gopalapuram, Coimbatore-641 018.
6.The Inspector of Police,
All Women Police Station, (West),
R.S.Puram, Coimbatore-641 002.
7.One.in Digitech Media Private Limited,
Rep. by its Director,
2nd Floor No.2, 1st Main Jakkasandra 1st Block,
Koramangala, Bangalore South,
Bengaluru-560 034, Karnataka.
8.Google of India Pvt. Ltd.,
Rep. by its Managing Director,
Block 1, Divya Sree Omega Towers,
Survey No.13, Kondapur Village,
Hyderabad-84, Telangana.
9.Thanthi TV,
Rep. by its Chief Editor,
RMZ Millenia, 1C, 1st Floor,
143 Dr.MGR Road,
Kandanchavadi, Perungudi,
Chennai-600096.
10.Nethravathi,
D/o.Balaraman ... Respondents
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Writ Petition No.24379 of 2023
Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India
praying to issue a Writ of Mandamus, directing respondents 1 to 5 to
remove all the Uniform Resource Locator's (URL's)/Web addresses
showing defamatory contents about the petitioner with and without her
photograph by considering the petitioner's representation dated 28.06.2023
within the time frame as fixed by this Court.
For Petitioner : Mr.R.Jayaprakash
For Respondents : Mr.A.Damodaran
Additional Public Prosecutor
[R1, R2, R5 & R6]
*****
ORDER
This Writ Petition has been filed for a direction to the respondents to remove the URLs/web addresses showing defamatory contents about the petitioner with the photograph of the petitioner, by considering the representation dated 28.06.2023.
2. When the matter came up for hearing on 18.08.2023, this Court directed the learned Additional Public Prosecutor to take instructions from the Superintendent of Police, Cyber Crime Division I, Chennai. Accordingly, a status report has been filed today before this 3/10 https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis Writ Petition No.24379 of 2023 Court. The relevant portions in the status report are extracted hereunder:
"5. It is submitted that the content removal requests was sent to the concerned news websites to remove the active URLs that contain personally identifiable information (photo and name) of the petitioner. The details of URLs are tabulated below.
STATUS OF URLs
S.No. URLs News Status
Channel
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v Youtube Content
=iRsdp%7E1lilU removed
2 https://tamil.oneindia.com/news/ One India Content
coimbatore/coimbatore-woman- removed
gave-complaint-as-fake-preacher- tried-to-misbehave-with-her-
507712.html
3 https://ibctamilnadu.com/article/pr IBC Content eacher-who-separated-from-her- Tamilnadu removed girl-complained-1681733243 4 https://tamil.asianetnews.com/crim Asianet Content e/coimbatore-woman-file- News removed complaint-against-fake-preacher- tried-to-misbehave-with-her-rt9tri 5 https://india.postsen.com/local/424 India Posts Content
616.html# English removed 6 https://www.dinamani.com/all- Dinamani Content editions/edition- removed coimbatore/coimbatore/2023/apr/1 9/a-young-woman-in-coimbatore-
file-a-police-complaint-against-the- madhya-pradesh-preacher-
3993316.html 7 https://www.maalaimalar.com/new Malaimalar Content s/state/tamil-news-young-woman- removed police-complaint-against-priest- 597573 4/10 https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis Writ Petition No.24379 of 2023 STATUS OF URLs S.No. URLs News Status Channel 8 https://tamil.hindustantimes.com/ta Hindustan Content milnadu/young-complained-a%20 times active/not gainst-the-preacher-in-coimbatore- removed 131681718630134.html 9 https://www.dailythanthi.com/New Daily Content s/State/the-preacher-who-forced- Thanthi removed the-woman-to-comply-with-his-
desire-944624 10 https://www.nakkheeran.in/24-by- Nakkheeran Content 7-news/thamizhagam/woman-has- active/not filed-complaint-against-fake- removed preacher-misbehaving-her-husband 11 https://www.updatenews360.com/t Updatenews Content amilnadu/the-woman-who-went-to- 360 removed the-preacher-for-child-boon-was- brutalized-sensational-incident-in- coimbatore-170423/ 12 https://india.postsen.com/local/423 India Posts Content
345.html English active/not removed
6. It is submitted that, as a Nodal agency we can follow the procedures as per the IT Act, 2008 and the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, 2021 and send requests to the intermediaries for removing the violated content. However, the concerned intermediaries should remove the alleged content based on their policy and community guidelines.
7. Hence, it is submitted that, the blocking requests were sent for the 7 active URLs in the capacity as a Nodal officer. Out of 12, 9 URLs have been removed and awaiting reply from 3 of the intermediaries. Further, we will follow up with the intermediaries by sending the reminders to remove the contents."
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3. It is clear from the above that out of 12 URLs, based on the request made by the police, the content has been removed in 9 URLs and the respondent police is awaiting reply from three of the intermediaries. It is further stated that regular follow up is made to remove the contents from the balance 3 URLs also.
4. This Court has to appreciate the immediate steps taken by the second respondent and his team. If not for the steps taken by the second respondent, the damaging contents could not have been removed from the URLs. Therefore, this Court has to necessarily acknowledge the good work done by the second respondent.
5. In the light of the stand taken in paragraph No.5 of the status report and the effective steps being taken to remove the contents from the balance three URLs, there shall be a further direction to the Hindustan Times, Nakkheeran and India Posts English to comply with the direction given by the second respondent and ensure that the contents are removed immediately.
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6. Before disposing of this Writ Petition, this Court has to deal with one specific request that has been made by learned Additional Public Prosecutor on the side of the respondent police. Learned Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that whenever such request is made to the police by the affected/aggrieved person for removing the damaging/defamatory contents from the intermediaries, many a times, the intermediaries do not comply with the directions given by the police. In view of the same, it becomes difficult for the police to act upon the complaint/representation given by the aggrieved person.
7. Learned Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that the police as a Nodal Agency will have to follow the procedure as per the Information Technology Act, 2008 and the relevant guidelines and code as specified in paragraph No.6 of the status report. It is made clear that whenever the Nodal Agency follows the procedure under the Information Technology Act, 2008, guidelines and the relevant code and makes a request to the intermediary to remove the objectionable contents, the intermediary shall comply with the same failing which it is left open to the Nodal Agency to proceed further to take action against the concerned 7/10 https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis Writ Petition No.24379 of 2023 intermediary. This direction issued by this Court shall be placed before the Director General of Police of Tamil Nadu in order to issue appropriate guidelines to the Cyber Cells across the State.
This Writ Petition is disposed of with the above direction. No costs.
25.08.2023 Neutral Citation: Yes/No Index: yes/no Speaking Order/Non-Speaking Order gm To
1.The Secretary to Govt of India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MEITY), Electronics Niketan, 6, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003.
2.The Nodal Officer, The Superintendent of Police, No.3, Dr Natesan Road, Police Training College, 3rd Floor, Cyber Crime Wing, Ashok Nagar, Chennai-83.
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3.The Deputy Commissioner of Police, 62, Old Post Office Road, Near Railway Station, Opposite Collector Office, Gopalapuram, Coimbatore-641018.
4.The Inspector of Police, All Women Police Station, (West), R.S.Puram, Coimbatore-641 002.
5.The Public Prosecutor, High Court, Madras.
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