The Hindu : National : Video clip case: petition posted for Tuesday

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Tuesday, Dec 21, 2004

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National

Video clip case: petition posted for Tuesday

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 20. The Delhi High Court today sought a reply from the police on a bail application by the Baazee.com chief executive officer (CEO), Avnish Bajaj, in the video clip case.Justice Vikrajit Sen issued the notice when standing counsel for the Delhi Government, Mukta Gupta, sought time to file reply to the petition.

Posting the petition for further hearing at 10-30 a.m. on Tuesday, Mr. Justice Sen directed Ms. Gupta to make available a copy of the reply to counsel for Mr. Bajaj by Monday evening.

Earlier, making submission for Mr. Bajaj, senior counsel Arun Jaitley, submitted that prima facie no case was made out against his client.

He stated that Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (IT) under which the Delhi police had booked Mr. Bajaj was not applicable as his client had neither published the clip nor caused it to be published.

If Section 67 was not applicable, then Section 79 of the IT Act did come into the picture as it expected the network service provider (Baazee.com) to take due diligence to prevent publication or transmission of pornographic material. When he was not aware of the content of the sleaze video, how could he be expected to take action to prevent the commission of the crime under Section 79 of the Act, Mr. Jaitley asked.

"Yet, as soon as it came to the knowledge of the CEO through an unknown person that the CD listed on the website for sale was a pornographic one, he got it immediately removed from the portal."

Explaining the services of the website, Mr. Jaitley stated that it was like classified pages of newspapers where people advertised their products for sale or purchase.

However, Justice Sen reacted sharply when Mr. Jaitley submitted that trading through the Internet was a new electronic mode which had taken over the whole world.

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