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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