The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the Delhi High Court order asking Wikipedia to take down the allegedly defamatory content on its pages about news agency ANI, saying that the HC direction was “very broadly worded.” A bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that on first principles, an injunction should be granted in such a manner that it is capable of being implemented. The bench said that the problem is the prayer for relief before the single-judge of the HC was not proper. It added that the news agency should approach the court afresh for interim relief confining to the specific portions that have been put on the website. The top court gave ANI liberty to make a fresh application for relief before the single judge in respect of specific contents on the website. The court directed that if such an application is made, it should be considered on merits without being influenced by its order. The page in contention had carried details of the hearing before the HC, including the comments of the judge, on a defamation complaint filed by ANI against Wikipedia. Hearing it earlier, the SC had said that though the HC has power to direct takedown of content, there has to be a prima facie finding that the material sought to be taken down is contemptuous. The court had said that an expression in the page, “threatened”, referring to the observations made by the judge during the hearing, should not have been used. On April 2, a single-judge bench of the HC had directed Wikimedia Foundation to take down alleged defamatory content and description of ANI. A division bench upheld the order on April 8, but stayed the direction to Wikipedia to remove the protection status granted to the administrators of the page.
