Litigants Seeking Takedown Of Objectionable Content Must First Approach Social Media Platform Before Seeking Injunction: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has clarified that individuals seeking urgent takedown of objectionable online content must first approach the social media platforms first before directly seeking judicial injunction.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora observed that the social media intermediaries appearing in Court proceedings do not object to such complaints for taking down of the unsavoury and inappropriate content.

“Therefore, it is clarified that if henceforth a complainant/plaintiff approaches the Court without availing the statutory mechanism provided under the IT Intermediary Rules, the said party may be held to be not entitled to an ex-parte ad-interim injunction, and the Court will direct the party to first avail its remedy under the aforesaid Rules,” the Court said.

It added that it is the obligation of the lawyers to advise the litigants about the said statutory remedy under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.

Justice Arora passed made the clarification in the ex parte interim injunction order protecting the personality rights of bollywood actor Ajay Devgn.

Before issuing the ex-parte injunction, the Court noted that AI generated images of the actor with other female celebrities uploaded by various users, which were allegedly unsavoury, inappropriate and ex- facie obscene, could have been reported to the concerned social media platform for take down in accordance with the IT Rules.

The Court said that it is an efficacious remedy provided by the statute to a complainant, such as Devgn, which is not only cost effective but also time sensitive and that some of the posts complained of would have been liable to be actioned as per Rule 3(2) of the IT Intermediary Rules.

It further noted that parties such as the actor were approaching the Court directly without availing the statutory mechanism and are therefore negating the objective of IT Intermediary Rules.

“The intent of the statutory mechanism is to provide an effective remedial mechanism to the complainant as well as to reduce burden on the judicial system. Moreover, this Court observes that the social media intermediaries appearing in Court proceedings do not object to such complaints for taking down the unsavoury and inappropriate content,” the Court said.

Title: AJAY ALIAS VISHAL VEERU DEVGAN v. THE ARTISTS PLANET & ORS

Click here to read order