Supreme Court sets aside Delhi HC takedown order in ANI-Wikipedia case
The Supreme Court on Friday set aside a Delhi High Court order directing Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to remove a page about the ongoing proceedings in a defamation suit filed by Asian News International, Live Law reported
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan stated that media coverage of judicial proceedings should not be restricted.
“It is not the duty of the court to tell the media to delete this and take that down,” said the bench. “Both the judiciary and the media are the foundational pillars of democracy, which is a basic feature of the Constitution. For a liberal democracy to thrive, both should supplement each other.”
Wikipedia is a free online collaborative encyclopedia edited by volunteers.
On October 16, the High Court directed the Wikimedia Foundation to take down a page about the ongoing proceedings of a 2 crore defamation suit filed by the news agency against the platform. Following this, the non-profit “suspended access” to the page.
On Friday, the Supreme Court stated that the direction issued by the High Court was not justified, Bar and Bench reported
“Such an order should be subject to the twin test of necessity and proportionality to be applied only in cases where there is real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration...
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