Google & MeitY Question Maintainability Of Sri Lankan Supreme Court Judge's Writ Petition In Karnataka High Court

Google and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology today questioned the maintainability of a writ petition filed in the Karnataka High Court by Sri Lankan Supreme Court Judge, Justice AHMD Nawaz, seeking deletion of certain online articles published against him.

They questioned the petition on the ground of territorial jurisdiction.

The counsel appearing for Google LLC, Adv. Manu P Kulkarni submitted :

“Why is this petition filed here, Your Lordship. This is not maintainable. Petitioner is a judge of Sri Lanka. The material that circulated came from Sri Lanka. Google has been incorporated in America. If a petition of this nature is permitted, floodgates will be opened. I cannot understand how the territorial jurisdiction of this court can be invoked by the petitioner”.

The counsel for the Ministry of Electronics & IT, Adv. Madhukar M Deshpande, also argued that the petitioner has not yet been convincing about the maintainability of this petition before the Karnataka High Court.

“ It is a question of examining Article 14 which applies to citizens and non citizens alike…”, responded the counsel for the petitioners.

The counsel appearing for the petitioners argued that no judges, anywhere in the world, should be intimidated by defamatory content. Google has been an intermediary that has disseminated information, including defamatory content against the petitioner-judge in India, Sri Lanka and other territories. Instead, they have chosen to take a pedantic view when it comes to the deletion of defamatory content, argued the counsel.

The petitioner's counsel also relied on an Australian judgment which held that as a secondary publisher, Google may not be responsible for the publication itself. But as an intermediary, if the complaint has already been made and a reasonable time has lapsed despite such notice, then they would be liable if they were not to remove it, the counsel said.

Today, the counsel also attempted to bring to the notice of the court certain Meta (Formerly Facebook) posts allegedly made by the journalist who has written contentious content about the judge in Colombo Telegraph & LankaENews in 2015 and 2020. The counsel submitted that it should be taken cognisance of because of its inflammatory tone when the matter is sub judice.

“...Here you may see, contempt of court has been committed by a journalist through online platforms. Today if somebody writes a scandalous remark about Google, will they allow that medium to continue? They will step in and remove it. However, Google has put this(content about Srilankan Judge) in the public domain, Your Lordship has to issue an order, it will be the first of its kind…”, the counsel submitted.

The judge's counsel also notified the court that the journalists who have allegedly written the defamatory content have shifted their base from Sri Lanka to other countries, such as England.

“ Any affront on a single judge is an affront to the judiciary…The integrity of the judiciary must be protected. The moment such content is brought to the notice of Google, they are required to remove it…”, added the counsel.

Adjourning the matter for further hearing, the Karnataka High Court directed the petitioner's counsel to rectify the address of service of summons to Google LLC, wrongly mentioned as Google INC.

The single judge bench of Justice Sachin Shanker Magadum also instructed the counsel to delete the second respondent, Google India, wrongly given in the party array. The matter has been posted again for a preliminary hearing on 06.04.2026.

Background

The Karnataka High Court on March 5 had issued notice on a writ petition moved by a sitting judge of Sri Lankan Supreme Court, Justice AHMD Nawaz, seeking the removal of certain allegedly defamatory content invoking his "right to be forgotten" under the Constitution of India.

The plea further sought a direction to the respondents to impose a complete ban on the URL searches and also allow the petitioner "to be forgotten for a crime" he never committed

The petition seeks direction to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as well as Google, to remove all allegedly defamatory content regarding the petitioner and prevent the reproduction of similar material.

The petitioner said that he chose not to file a lawsuit in Sri Lanka on ethical grounds as it might give rise to an apprehension of bias, given his position as a Judge of the Apex Court of the country.

Apart from issuing notice to the Central Government and Google, the court also issued to two Sri Lankan news publications–Colombo Telegraph and Lanka e-News who are stated to have published the alleged defamatory content.

Case title: JUSTICE A.H.M.D NAWAZ v/s MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & Ors.

Case No: WP 1277/2025