The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered Wikipedia to take down a webpage about the ongoing proceedings of a defamation suit filed by news agency Asian News International against the platform, Live Law reported.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that the comments made against the court’s single-judge bench on the page were prima facie contemptuous.
The court directed the Wikimedia Foundation, the United States-based non-profit that owns Wikipedia, to comply with the order within 36 hours, according to The Hindu.
“If someone writes something malicious about this bench, about this discussion, what will you do?" the court asked the platform, according to Bar and Bench.
Wikipedia is a free online collaborative encyclopaedia edited by volunteers.
On Monday, the bench criticised the platform for allowing a page titled “Asian News International vs Wikimedia Foundation” to be published. The court said that Wikipedia would have to take the page down, noting that the “single judge cannot be put in fear or be threatened”.
“Look at the page,” the bench had said. “You are disclosing something about a sub-judice matter.”
During the hearing on Wednesday, the counsel representing ANI told the court that after the last hearing, the division bench’s observations had been “opened up for discussion on the page”, reported Live Law.
“The said description of the impugned order and of the single judge is prima facie contemptuous and amounts to interference in the court proceedings and that too by an entity whose editors are defendants in the suit,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying on Wednesday.
Appearing for Wikipedia, lawyer Akhil Sibal said that the page on which the impugned order was being commented upon and the webpage on which the discussion had opened regarding the division bench’s observations were created by the platform, according to Live Law.
Sibal was quoted as saying that Wikipedia would comply if the court directed it to take down the page.
The matter will be heard next week.
On Monday, the High Court said that it was “extremely disturbing” that Wikipedia thinks it is beyond the ambit of law.
The court was hearing a case by the news agency seeking the removal of allegedly defamatory content posted to its Wikipedia page.
The Wikipedia page about ANI says that the news agency has been criticised for serving as a “propaganda tool” for the current Union government.
The court’s remark came in response to Wikipedia’s refusal to identify the page’s editors. “The system [of Wikipedia] cannot be a cloak to defame someone,” the court said.
In July, the court issued a summons to Wikipedia and ordered it to disclose information about the users who made the edits on the Wikipedia page about ANI, according to Bar and Bench.
After this, ANI claimed that Wikipedia had not complied with the orders. On September 5, the court warned Wikipedia that it would ask the government to block the platform in India and issued it a contempt of court notice.
On Monday, the bench told Wikipedia that it was putting its intermediary protection under the Information Technology Act at risk by not disclosing the information.
The Act’s safe harbour clause protects social media intermediaries from legal action for content posted online by users.
On July 12, in response to the defamation case, the Wikimedia Foundation said that the platform’s content is determined by its global community of volunteer editors.
“As a technology host, the Wikimedia Foundation generally does not add, edit or determine content published on Wikipedia,” it stated. “Wikipedia’s content is determined by its global community of volunteer editors [also known as Wikimedia Community] who compile and share information on notable subjects.”
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