‘Can court be so touchy?’: SC questions Delhi HC’s takedown order in ANI-Wikipedia case
The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Delhi High Court’s order to 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, Bar and Bench reported.
On October 16, a High Court bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela directed the Wikimedia Foundation to take down a page about ongoing proceedings of a 2 crore defamation suit filed by the news agency against the platform. The non-profit has since “suspended access” to the page.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, however, on Friday asked how the High Court could have passed such a direction unless it came to a conclusion that the page constituted contempt of court.
“Everyday in media we find severe criticism of the Court,” the Supreme Court 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 that 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...
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