Allahabad HC Orders Status Quo In Google's Plea Against Ex-Parte Injunction Order Restraining Publication Of ED Proceedings Against UPSIDC Engineer [Read Order]

The Single Bench of Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi was hearing a writ petition filed by Google LLC, USA and Google India Private Limited against the order dated 14.9.2020 and order dated 15.2.2020 passed by Civil Judge (Senior Division), Kanpur Nagar by means of which an ex-parte decree was passed against them, mandatorily restraining them from displaying news relating to the said proceedings and requiring them to deindex the same from the search engine.

The Companies had argued that a permanent injunction, a mandatory injunction and cost in favour of the Respondent was passed by the Civil Judge whereas summons were never served upon Google, and no opportunity of hearing was granted to them.

It was submitted that Google is merely a search engine which works by indexing web pages which contain the keywords searched by its users and then assigns a rank to each page. It was argued that the impugned order requires Google to block videos of news organisations and de-index news articles, without even making its actual publishers a party to the suit.

They alleged that the impugned order is arbitrary inasmuch as it dismisses the Petitioner's application under Order IX Rule 13 (for setting aside decree ex-part) in limine and without even providing an opportunity to the petitioner to be heard on its merits.

It was further pointed out that the ex-parte decree raises important questions of public interest, insofar as it has the effect of removal/takedown (from YouTube) and deindexing (from Google Search) of news articles, reports and news videos, which the ex-parte decree does not even find to be defamatory, false or factually incorrect as on the date that they were published.

Furthermore, it was argued that the ex-parte decree amounts to a "prior restraint on speech", which is contrary to established principles of law.

In view thereof the Court observed,

"The matter requires consideration by this Court… Till the next date of listing, parties shall maintain status quo in the matter as on today."

Notices have been issued to the Respondents and they have been called upon to file a reply in six weeks. Matter will now be listed in week commencing 23.11.2020.

Mr. Anoop Trivedi, senior advocate appeared for Google LLC (USA) and Mr. Manish Goyal, senior advocate appeared for Google India Pvt Ltd and were assisted by Mr. Avi Tandon, Raghuvansh Mishra and Vinayak Mithal, advocates.

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