The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued summons to the users accused of adding “defamatory” statements about Asian News International (ANI) on its Wikipedia page.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad delivered the verdict after taking note of a Division Bench order that permitted Wikipedia to serve summons on the users without publicly disclosing their identity.
Earlier, Wikipedia had appealed against the single-judge order directing it to disclose the identity of its users accused of defamation by ANI in its suit.
Last month, Wikipedia had agreed to share the user information with the High Court and also volunteered to serve summons of ANI’s defamation suit on them.
The Division Bench had then disposed of the appeal in terms of a consent order prepared by Wikipedia and ANI.
Appearing for ANI, Advocate Sidhant Kumar today apprised the single-judge about the developments that took place before the Division Bench.
The High Court, after going through the Division Bench judgment, ordered the High Court Registry to comply with the mandate of the consent terms recorded in it.
The single-judge Bench ordered that summons should be served to defendants 2-4 through all permissible modes, including email addresses to be supplied by defendant 1 (Wikipedia).
The counsel appearing for Wikipedia said it would provide the e-mail IDs in a sealed cover. The High Court ordered Wikipedia to serve the summons in the next four days and listed the matter for further hearing on December 16.
ANI had filed a defamation suit before the High Court alleging that Wikipedia had allowed defamatory edits to its page on the online encyclopedia. ANI sought directions for taking down of the defamatory edits.
The Court issued a summons to Wikipedia in July this year and ordered it to disclose information about three people who made the edits on ANI’s Wikipedia page.
ANI later complained that Wikipedia did not comply with this directive. The single-judge Bench of Justice Navin Chawla took strong objection to Wikipedia’s conduct and issued a notice for contempt of court.
The single-judge Bench further ordered an authorised representative of Wikipedia to be personally present in the Court on October 25, when the contempt case was listed.
Wikipedia challenged the single-judge Bench directives before the Division Bench. ANI and Wikipedia reached an agreement before the Division Bench and Wikipedia agreed to serve notice to the users while protecting their identity.
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