Neutral Citation Number: 2023:DHC:2806
Union of India (supra) was rendered. In addition to “actual knowledge” as
defined in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (supra) as a Court order or upon
being notified by the appropriate Government, Rule 3(2)(b) and (c) of the IT
Rules now allows the victim/user to approach the intermediary on their own
with their grievance. Further, it already mandates a timeline that must be
adhered to when it comes to disabling access/de-linking the offending
content. If read holistically, if the user/victim is required to approach with
each specific URL again and again, this will only frustrate the purpose of the
timelines and the grievance mechanism redressal as expounded under the IT
Rules. It has been submitted that the sustained practice with regard to
content removal under the IT Act has been to provide specific URLs,
however, this practice fails to account for a grievance redressal mechanism
available to the user/victim and it is not justifiable, morally or otherwise, to
suggest that an NCII abuse victim will have to constantly subject themselves
to trauma by having to scour the internet for NCII content relating to them
and having to approach the authorities again and again. Once it has been
reported by the user/victim or a Court order or an order of the appropriate
Government has been rendered, then the search engine cannot contend that
any filtering of the content that is done subsequent to the reporting or the
Order is proactive in nature; it can only be termed as being in pursuance to
the reporting of existence of such content specific to an individual or a
judicial Order.
59.
The fact that search engines do not host or publish or create content
themselves is of no consequence when it comes to the question of removal
of the access to the offending content. It is undeniable that they do have the
ability, the capacity, and the legal obligation to disable access to the
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:SHAZAAD ZAKIR
Signing Date:26.04.2023
17:19:50
W.P.(CRL) 1505/2021
Page 82 of 88
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