ANI's defamation case against Wikipedia: SC questions HC's direction to remove content

The Supreme Court of India has overturned the Delhi High Court's order in the ANI versus Wikipedia case. The Delhi HC had ordered Wikipedia to take down the alleged defamatory statements about the Asian News International (ANI) news agency from the platform on April 2.

However, the Supreme Court has granted liberty to ANI to move to the Delhi HC again for interim relief.

ANI sued the Wikimedia Foundation in a defamation case. The news agency alleged that the platform allowed anonymous users to make defamatory statements about it on its platform.

The page contained references to the news agency as a "propaganda tool" for the incumbent Modi government.

Last year, a division bench of the Delhi High Court ordered Wikipedia to take a page titled, 'Asian News International vs Wikimedia Foundation’ detailing the defamation litigation.

The division bench called the page "contemptuous" and amounted "to interference in the court proceedings".

However, the Supreme Court expressed concern about the "validity and legality” of the high court’s decision to take down the page.

“To bring the best out of the lawyers, sometimes we say so many things in open court. Now, if the court says something orally and, on social media, somewhere there is a comment offered, why should the court be touchy about such comments… Somebody discusses something that happens in the court, will that amount to interference?” a two-judge division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka asked.