Punjab & Haryana High Court Upholds Facebook's Removal Of Copyrighted Song From User's Page

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has disposed of a petition challenging the removal of content from a Facebook page, holding that the platform acted in accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 after receiving a copyright complaint. [2026 LiveLaw (PH) 202]

Justice Jagmohan Bansal said, "it is evident that petitioner was duly informed that a song has been removed from his page because it was uploaded without consent of copyright owner. The petitioner has not produced any evidence to the contrary, thus, respondent had rightly removed aforesaid song from its platform. The respondent has acted in accordance with 2021 Rules, thus, there is no violation in the removal of aforesaid song. Question of compliance of Rule 4(8) is left open."

The petition was filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution seeking direction to the Facebook Meta platform to comply with Rule 4(8) of the 2021 Rules, which mandates providing an opportunity of hearing before removal of content upon private complaints.

The petitioner, who operates a Facebook page titled “Lok Awaz Punjabi”, contended that certain content/data had been removed without adherence to Rule 4(8) of the 2021 Rules.

It was argued that the removal was based on a private complaint and as per Rule 4(8), such action requires prior notice and an opportunity of hearing to the content owner. The respondent failed to follow due process before taking down the material, it was further alleged.

Opposing the plea, the respondent submitted that the petitioner had uploaded a song without obtaining consent from the copyright holder. Upon receiving a complaint from the copyright owner, the platform said it was obligated to remove the infringing content. Only the specific song was removed, and not the petitioner's Facebook page, it added.

The Court held that there was no illegality in the removal of the song and found no grounds to interfere in the matter.

While addressing the petitioner's argument regarding Rule 4(8), the Court left the question of its compliance open, refraining from issuing any definitive ruling on the scope or applicability of the provision in the present case.

Disposing of the petition, the Court clarified that the action taken was limited to removal of a specific song and did not extend to deletion of the petitioner's Facebook page.

Mr. Nikhil Ghai, Advocate for the petitioner

Mr. Puneet Bali, Senior Advocate with Mr. Yash Karunakaran, Advocate and

Mr. Aakash Sharma, Advocate for respondent No.1

Ms. Saigeeta Srivastava, Advocate for Union of India-respondent No.2

Mr. Ferry Sofat, Additional Advocate General, Punjab

Title: Maninderjeet Singh v. Facebook Meta Platform INC and others

Click here to read order