The Gujarat High Court has issued notice to Google India and others on a man's plea claiming that his email account is blocked for backing up allegedly "explicit child abuse" content on Google Photos.

Neel Shukla, a computer engineer, said Google failed to inform him of the objectionable photos but he suspects that action is taken over a photo showing him being bathed by his grandmother when he was two years old.

Shukla has stated in the plea that he followed thorough Company's grievance redressal mechanism but the same is Artificial Intelligence based mechanism. "It is imperative to note that the initial content scanning mechanism and appeal mechanism are both done via an Artificial Intelligence programme - SAM. Only two appeals are allowed within Respondent Nos. 4's redressal mechanism, both of which are conducted by Artificial Intelligence and not by a human being," the plea stated.

Shukla added he is unable to use any personal or professional services such as Google Pay, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets etc. Moreover, he was locked out of his other email services such as his old Yahoo account as Gmail was a backup email attached to said account.

Further, according to the plea, his access to networks not connected to Google such as Discord, Reddit, YouTube, Android Play Store etc. was cut off due to the same being attached to Google.

Shukla stated in his plea that he is, “unable to engage with clients being a self-employed individual, unable to autonomously schedule work calls, check his calendar for information on meetings and all in all, unable to function at the capacity required in this cutthroat and competitive market.”

In April of last year, the tech giant suspended Shukla's account due to violations of its policy regarding explicit child abuse content, as stated by his counsel, Dipen Desai, in court. After the company's grievance redressal mechanism failed to resolve the issue, Shukla took the matter to the high court on March 12.

During the hearing, Shukla's lawyer highlighted that since Google blocked his email account, Shukla has faced significant business losses due to inability to access his emails.

Shukla through his plea has sought to challenge the inaction of the Department of Science and Technology (Respondent No. 2) and Directorate General of Police, State Cyber Crime Cell, CID Crime (Respondent No. 3), in not deciding the applications of the petitioner to get unlocked his google account maintained and managed by Google India Private Limited (Respondent No. 4), in spite of the fact that there is no violation of policies of Google LLC, United States of America.

Justice Vaibhavi D Nanavati, presiding over the case, has also issued notices to the Central and state governments, asking them to respond by March 26.

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