The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Department of Information Technology to submit the papers on sanction for prosecution of Google India and social networking site Facebook for allegedly hosting objectionable contents.
Justice Suresh Kait passed the order when Google India counsel said the Union government had no locus to interfere in the matter as it was a complaint case.
Countering the argument, counsel for the Delhi Police said the investigating agency submitted a report to the lower court which had asked for it. The Department of Information Technology had also given sanction for prosecution of the sites, including Google India, saying it was a fit case for initiating proceedings. Thereupon, Justice Kait asked the Department to submit papers relating to the sanction for prosecution on February 15.
On December 23 last, the trial court summoned representatives of as many as 21 networking sites, taking cognisance of the private criminal complaint.
“It appears from a bare perusal of documents that prima facie the accused in connivance with each other and other unknown persons are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivious content,” the court order said.
The complaint has been filed under Sections 292 (sale of obscene books, etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person, etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The magistrate noted that the material submitted by the complainant, journalist Vinay Rai, had derogatory articles pertaining to Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ and various Hindu gods and goddesses.
Keywords: Google India, Facebook, bjectionable contents
Comments:
Since when has it been the govt and the courts' business to decide what we can and cannot see on the net? Anybody thinking differently should see an interview that the "censor crusader" gave. He said that women pose as men and vice versa. He alleges that people put up fake profiles and such when asked why he lodged the lawsuit. This is clearly an individual's private anguish. >Should personal agenda be the basis on which is decided what Indians can see and cannot see online?
However, when asked what evidence he submitted to the court, he alleges that he submitted materials offensive to Jesus, Muhammad etc. Does he think that censoring those materials will stop religious riots? The materials that are "offensive" as he claims will only inspire "counter-offensive" materials, a few swear words, nothing more. Just look around youtube, check up the video and text responses to these "offensive" materials and you'll see what I mean.
If we are to take only the best intention of Mr Rai and leave out the part where he thinks himself the nation's moral guardian, he hasn't stopped an infatuated man from lasciviously eyeing that young girl. He hasn't stopped the desperate man who is going to jump off that roof. He hasn't stopped that band of masked desperate men buying a few guns to rob the bank. He hasn't stopped a misguided young man from being enraged by an assault on his religion and wreaking havoc. All he has done is initiate a chain of events that might shut down one of the best sources of information and red alerts one can get these days. he has assaulted free speech. Thanks a lot, you foolish vigilante. persons with vested interests who would have used those materials to spark off violence. Such individuals will obtain offensive material to indoctrinate and unleash, regardless of what Google India does. Had the govt been interested, they could have pursued these individuals using the net itself, since an electronic trail is very hard to erase completely. Now that this journalist has started off his private fantasy, the electronic trail to instigators of violence will almost certainly go cold. See how many rape etc cases are solved via Facebook updates and the like. With that gone, the rapes will not stop, however a treasure trove of information has been shut down.In short, the net would have provided normal individuals with a space to vent out their anger and frustration. As I said, no one of the general "mass" resorts to terrorist acts on the basis of a silly youtube video. The few who do are either not within the "mass" or have been indoctrinated. They will not disappear.