Delhi High Court issues summons to Wikipedia users in ANI's defamation suit

The Delhi High Court Thursday issued summons to the users accused of adding "defamatory" statements about Asian News International (ANI) on its Wikipedia page [Wikimedia Foundation Inc v. ANI Media Private Limited & Ors].

Justice Subramonium Prasad passed the order after taking note of a Division Bench order of the High Court allowing Wikipedia to serve summons on the users without publicly disclosing their identity.

Wikipedia had earlier appealed against the single-judge order directing it to disclose the identity of its users who are accused of defamation by ANI in its suit.

Before the Division Bench, Wikipedia last month agreed to share the user information with the Court and also volunteered to serve summons of ANI's defamation suit on them. The appeal was then disposed of in terms of a consent order prepared by the Wikipedia and ANI.

Advocate Sidhant Kumar, representing the ANI, today apprised the single-judge about the developments that took place before the Division Bench.

After going through the Division Bench order, Justice Prasad ordered the High Court Registry to comply with the mandate of the consent terms recorded in it.

"Let summons be issued to defendants 2-4. The summons can be served through all permissible modes ... including email addresses to be supplied by the defendant 1 [Wikipedia]," the Court ordered.

The counsel representing Wikipedia clarified that the email ids will be supplied in a sealed cover. Wikipedia has to serve the summons in four days as per the court order.

The matter will be heard next on December 16.

ANI has filed a defamation suit before the High Court alleging that Wikipedia was allowing defamatory edits to its page on the online encyclopedia. ANI has prayed for take down of the defamatory edits.

In July, the Court in the suit had issued a summons to Wikipedia and ordered it to disclose information about three people who made the edits on ANI's Wikipedia page.

After ANI complained that Wikipedia had not complied with this directive, single-judge Justice Navin Chawla had taken strong objection to Wikipedia's conduct and issued a notice for contempt of court.

The single-judge had also ordered an authorised representative of Wikipedia to be personally present in Court on October 25, when the contempt case was listed next.

These single-judge directives were challenged by Wikipedia before the Division Bench where both ANI and Wikipedia reached an agreement and the latter agreed to serve notice on the users thereby protecting their identity.