Yahoo India Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Himachal Pradesh
In the High Court of Himachal Pradesh
Cr MMO 58/2016
Before Justice Rajiv Sharma
Decided on March 09, 2016

Relevancy of the case: FIR against an intermediary for defamatory content

Statutes & Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 2(1)(w))
• The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Section 505(2))
• The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Section 196, 482)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The petitioner has a licensing arrangement with news agencies for publishing their news reports on its website (Yahoo.co.in).
• An article titled “Now Jadavpur Varsity Students raise slogans to raise pro-Afzal and Azadi” was posted.
• Along with the article, an image of the Himachal Pradesh University unit of the SFI (Student’s Federation of India) was displayed on the petitioner’s website for a short duration between 7:00 PM on 16.02.2016 and 10:00 PM on 17.02.2016.
• Subsequently, the petitioner prominently published a public apology on its website on 25.02.2016 and 26.02.2016.
• In the meantime, one of the respondents registered an FIR against the petitioner website for the crime of defamation.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The counsel for Yahoo India argued that the registration of the FIR was, per se, bad in law since it was in contravention with the provisions of Section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
• Furthermore, he contended that his client had no mens rea to commit an offence and fulfils the essential ingredients of defamation under the IPC. In addition, as per Section 2(1)(w) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, his client was merely an intermediary. Moreover, the counsel mentioned his client is willing to pay a settlement amount of ₹1 lakh to the respondents.

Opinion of the bench

• The bench observed that the parties had already settled the matter amicably. Hence, it did not see any sustainability of the FIR regarding the crime of defamation. It thus quashed the FIR.

Final Decision

• The bench disposed of the petition directing the petitioner to deposit a sum of ₹2 lakhs (one lakh each for respondents numbers 3 and 4) in the registry of the Court within one week.

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