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The Supreme Court on Friday set aside a Delhi High Court order directing Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to remove a page about the ongoing proceedings in a defamation suit filed by Asian News International, Live Law reported
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan stated that media coverage of judicial proceedings should not be restricted.
“It is not the duty of the court to tell the media to delete this and take that down,” said the bench. “Both the judiciary and the media are the foundational pillars of democracy, which is a basic feature of the Constitution. For a liberal democracy to thrive, both should supplement each other.”
Wikipedia is a free online collaborative encyclopedia edited by volunteers.
On October 16, the High Court directed the Wikimedia Foundation to take down a page about the ongoing proceedings of a 2 crore defamation suit filed by the news agency against the platform. Following this, the non-profit “suspended access” to the page.
On Friday, the Supreme Court stated that the direction issued by the High Court was not justified, Bar and Bench reported
“Such an order should be subject to the twin test of necessity and proportionality to be applied only in cases where there is real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice, or to the fairness of the trial,” the court said.
The top court had on April 4 criticised the Delhi High Court for ordering the takedown of the page.
“Everyday in media we find severe criticism of the court,” the Supreme Court had said. “Unless it is contempt, how can the Court be so touchy? In a lighter vein, this criticism is nothing. Why is the Court being so touchy? Such criticism will be read and forgotten in a few days.”
The main defamation suit is about a page about ANI that says the news agency has been criticised for serving as a “propaganda tool” for the current Union government.
ANI, in its suit, alleged that Wikimedia Foundation published false and defamatory content with malicious intent to tarnish the news agency’s reputation.
On April 17, the Supreme Court set aside a separate Delhi High Court order directing Wikimedia Foundation to remove allegedly defamatory content about ANI from its page.
“Such a broad interim relief is not capable of being specifically implemented,” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying. “The reason is that there is no clarity on the issue on who will decide whether the contents are false, misleading and defamatory.”
However, the bench granted liberty to ANI to move the High Court again for interim relief in the case.
Also read: A Delhi High Court case could end up threatening how Wikipedia works in India
This article first appeared on Scroll.in
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