NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court ordered the removal of all social media posts showing video recordings of court proceedings in which Arvind Kejriwal argued his application seeking recusal of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in the excise case.
A bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Manmeet P. S. Arora issued notice to Kejriwal, AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, Congress leader Digvijay Singh and others on a PIL seeking contempt action for allegedly uploading and sharing the recordings. The court directed them to file replies within four weeks and listed the matter for July 6.
The bench also sought a response from the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, noting that unauthorised recording and publication of court proceedings are prohibited under High Court rules. “We are concerned with the larger interest of the institution. Otherwise, if we don’t control this, it would go on,” the bench said.
The court directed social media platforms to take down videos of the April 13 hearing. Counsel for Meta Platforms and Google said the flagged links had been removed. Noting that some videos were still available on X, the bench ordered immediate takedown upon notice.
It also allowed the petitioner to approach platform counsels regarding any additional clips, which would then be removed. During the hearing, Meta’s counsel said the company, as an intermediary, does not act as a “super censor” or proactively monitor content, but acts when alerted under the law.
“The moment we get to know, we take it down,” the counsel said. The court also asked the platforms to state if it could identity who was the first person to upload the videos in question. The counsel for Meta said since the uploader accounts have been identified, they can supply the subscriber information.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the unauthorised recording and sharing of court recordings on social media undermined the independence of the judiciary and was illegal.
Directives
Notices issued to Arvind Kejriwal, Sisodia, others
Replies to be filed in the next four weeks
Matter listed for further hearing on July 6
High court seeks response from IT Ministry
Platforms asked to identify original uploaders