Kerala HC Directs Facebook-India To Allow Ex-Judge Account Access To Delete Offensive Post Against Asianet News Editor

Justice Mohammed Nias CP has directed Facebook-India to permit the Ex-Judge to access his Facebook account to delete the post.

“Accordingly, a week is granted to the 4th respondent to permit access to the 5th respondent, so as to enable him to remove the post in question. The learned counsel for the 4th respondent shall intimate the learned counsel for the 5th respondent, who in turn will intimate the 5th respondent to remove the post in question, once access is given by the 4th respondent.”

The Court has passed the above interim order based on the submission of the Ex-judge that he has no access to his Facebook account and was unable to remove the impugned post.

Earlier, the Court had directed Facebook to remove and prevent circulation of the impugned post against Mrs Sooryakumar. She had registered a complaint against the former judge under Section 354 A(1)(iv) IPC (making sexually coloured remarks) and Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. She approached the Court seeking direction for removing the post as it amounted to cyberstalking and was meant to harass and intimidate her.

Since the post was removed only from India and not globally, the Court had directed Facebook-India to submit an affidavit regarding the compliance of its order.

The Counsel for Facebook-India submitted that as per the order of the Court, the post was removed from India.

Further, the Court stated that issues about the power of the Court to direct intermediaries like Facebook to block content globally will be considered later.

Advocates VV Nandagopal Nambiar, Preeja P Vijayan, Smitha (Ezhupunna) and Chitra Johnson appeared for Mrs Sooryakumar

Advocate Tejas Karia appeared for respondent No.4/Facebook India

Advocates R Sunil Kumar and A Salini Lal appeared for former sub-court judge S Sudeep

Case Title: Mrs. Sindhu Suryakumar v. State of Kerala and Ors., W.P.(C) No.34989/2023

Click Here To Read/Download The Order