Sreekanth C. Nair v. Developer of Website
In the High Court of Kerala
Crl. R.P. 2900/2008
Before Justice V Ramkumar
Decided on August 28, 2008

Relevancy of the case: Directing a complaint for blocking a pornographic website to Director, CERT-In

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 67)
• The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Section 2(d))

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The petitioner accessed an income tax-related website and was redirected to a pornographic site.
• The website in question is an unmistakable pornographic website that has to be blocked in the public interest and further was in violation of section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• The revision petition challenges the order passed by the Judicial First Class Magistrate-I which requested the court to block the website in the public interest by submitting a complaint through the court to the Director of CERT-In.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the petitioner, having come across the obscene website, desired to lodge a complaint before the Director CERT-In. For this purpose, he had moved to the court which has been listed as one of the authorities, as per clause (viii) Paragraph V(1) of the order by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for blocking of certain websites and people who may submit a complaint to the Director.

 Opinion of the Bench

• The actual offender is unknown and the court cannot be expected to find the same and direct the Director, CERT-In to remove the content. Further, the intended authorities who may submit a complaint are listed under clause (i) to (vii) and only if these authorities were not inclined or refused, the court may submit the complaint to the Director, CERT-In as per clause (viii). The interpretation of the petitioner is incorrect and would place the court in the position of a complainant which was certainly not intended by the Government order.

Final Decision

• The revision petition stands dismissed.

This case summary has been prepared by Nandini Gadgil, an undergraduate student at DES Shri Navalmal Firodia Law College, Pune, during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in January/February 2021.