New Delhi, Aug 12 The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre's Grievance Appellate Committee to decide within seven days the issue of removal of certain allegedly inflammatory and derogatory YouTube videos targeting Shirdi Sai Baba.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma passed the order on August 11 on a petition filed by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi.
"Having regard to the grievance raised by the petitioner and the nature of the allegations made in the petition, this court considers it appropriate to direct that the statutory appeal preferred by the petitioner before the Grievance Appellate Committee shall be considered and decided by passing a reasoned order within a period of seven days from this date, under intimation to the petitioner, considering the urgency in the matter," the court ordered.
The petitioner has alleged that certain YouTube videos contain "false, defamatory, inflammatory and derogatory allegations" against Shirdi Sai Baba as well as the trust, but the platform has refused to take those down.
The petitioner has said despite approaching various authorities, including the Grievance Appellate Committee established by the Centre under the information-technology regime, the content continues to remain accessible, hurting the religious sentiments of devotees and violating their rights under Article 25 of the Constitution.
Senior advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey appeared in the court for the petitioner.
The court has asked the Centre to file a compliance report by the next hearing on August 19.
In the petition, the trust has said it is the governing and administrative body of the Shri Sai Baba Mahasamadhi temple and in or around March, it became aware of the publication of a series of "coordinated videos" on YouTube containing "grossly-derogatory, historically-false, inflammatory and communally-provocative allegations concerning Shri Sai Baba and the petitioner".
It has alleged that these videos falsely accuse the trust of deceiving devotees, manipulating religious history and perpetuating a false religious narrative, and seek to create a "continuing and concerted digital campaign" to generate religious hostility and communal disharmony.
After detailed complaints to YouTube under the Grievance Redressal Mechanism in the Information Technology Rules did not provide effective redressal, an appeal was preferred before the Grievance Appellate Committee on July 29, the plea has said.
It has also said a comprehensive representation was sent to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The plea has informed that YouTube refused to remove the content on the grounds that it is "not in a position to adjudicate upon the veracity of postings and does not remove video postings upon allegations", and asked the petitioner to either approach the uploaders directly or the court.
