The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the April 2 verdict of the Delhi High Court, ordering the takedown of the alleged defamatory edits on Asian News International (ANI)’s page on Wikipedia.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed that the High Court verdict did not specify which statements about ANI should be removed by Wikipedia.
There was no clarity in the order on who would decide whether the contents were false, misleading and defamatory. An injunction should be granted in such a manner that it could be implemented, it noted.
The top court of the country passed the order on a petition filed by Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, against the High Court judgment. The petitioner also challenged the April 8 verdict passed by a Division Bench of the High Court, upholding the single-judge Bench order.
The Counsel appearing for ANI submitted that the statements flagged in the amended plaint may be considered.
The Bench said that the interim relief granted by the single-judge Bench was too broadly worded and lacked clarity.
The Apex Court, however, granted liberty to ANI to approach the single-judge Bench again with a prayer against specific content.
It further ordered the single-judge Bench to consider on merits, the prayer filed by ANI, without being influenced by the order of this Court.
The top court of the country had earlier reserved its decision on another appeal moved by Wikipedia against a High Court verdict directing the takedown of page on its website about the ‘Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation’ case itself.
On July 9, 2024, the High Court issued summons to Wikipedia and ordered it to disclose information about three people who made the edits on ANI’s Wikipedia page.
The order was resisted by Wikipedia, which itself chose to serve notices on these users instead of disclosing their identity in public.
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