Delhi HC gives 7 days to GAC to decide Sai Baba Trust plea over 'derogatory' online content
New Delhi, August 11
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave the Grievance Appellate Committee seven days to decide a statutory appeal filed by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi, over YouTube videos and other online content allegedly containing false, defamatory, inflammatory and derogatory allegations against Shri Sai Baba and the Trust.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma directed the GAC to consider the Trust's appeal and pass a reasoned order within seven days, keeping in view the urgency of the matter. The Court also directed that the Trust be informed about the decision.
The High Court further ordered that a compliance report be filed before it by the next hearing on August 19, 2026.
The order came on a petition filed by the Trust against communications issued by Google LLC/YouTube on July 17, 18, 19, 24 and 26, 2026. Through these communications, the platform had declined the Trust's requests for removal of certain videos.
The Trust told the Court that the videos contained false, defamatory, inflammatory and derogatory allegations against Sai Baba and also made allegations against the Trust.
According to the petition, the Trust had earlier complained to Google LLC/YouTube under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It said that specific URLs and other details of the alleged objectionable content were provided, but no effective action was taken.
The Trust later approached the Centre and the Grievance Appellate Committee, but claimed that the content continued to remain available on YouTube.
The Trust has sought a direction to the Centre, through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), to ensure that Google LLC/YouTube removes or disables access to the identified videos.
It has also sought guidelines for online platforms to deal with material affecting religious sentiments and changes in the grievance redressal system, including removal of restrictions on the number of files that can be uploaded and the character limit for complaints.
The Trust has claimed that the continued availability of the videos hurts the religious sentiments of Sai Baba devotees and affects their rights under Article 25 of the Constitution.
The petition also seeks quashing of the communications through which Google LLC/YouTube rejected the Trust's requests for removal of the videos.
During the hearing, the High Court specifically said it would not reproduce or refer to the contents of the videos in its order as doing so could potentially hurt the religious sentiments of members of the community.
After hearing Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey for the Trust and Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma for the Centre and other authorities, the Court directed the GAC to decide the statutory appeal within seven days.
The High Court issued notice in the petition. No one appeared for the remaining respondents when the matter was taken up.
Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey appeared with advocates Saurav Agrawal, Ravi Sharma, Prachi Dubey, Rupraj Banerjee, Satyam Sharma, Harsh Khabar, Aryan Kumar Tiwari, Anusha Sinha, Khushi Arora, Devangana Mishra and Shambhu Prasad Singh.
The matter will next be heard on August 19, when the compliance report is expected to be placed before the Court.
— ANI
Reader Comments
While I respect the sentiments of Sai devotees, I hope the GAC will also consider freedom of speech. We need a balanced approach - not everything critical should be censored, but outright defamation shouldn't be allowed either. Let's see what the committee decides.
YouTube has become a platform for spreading all kinds of nonsense without any accountability. It's about time the government and courts step in to protect religious sentiments. But I also hope they don't go overboard with censorship. Tricky situation, honestly.
The court gave a reasonable timeline of 7 days. Hope the GAC acts swiftly. Also, it's important that the court didn't even reproduce the offensive content in its order - shows sensitivity. Good move by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.
This is a classic case of big tech platforms ignoring Indian laws. The IT Rules 2021 were meant for this, but YouTube keeps dragging its feet. Glad the High Court is pushing for accountability. Need more such interventions!
As an outsider looking in, India's approach to regulating online content is interesting. The balance between religious sentiments and free speech is a delicate one. Respectful criticism shouldn't be silenced, but hateful content shouldn't be encouraged either. Hope a fair middle ground is found.
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.