The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) to decide within 10 days the appeal filed by Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi, seeking the removal of allegedly derogatory and inflammatory content concerning Shri Sai Baba from YouTube and other digital platforms. A detailed order is awaited.

The writ petition, filed by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust through Advocate Prachi Dubey, contends that despite invoking the grievance redressal mechanism under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and approaching the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as well as the GAC, the identified content continues to remain accessible online. The petition seeks directions against the continued availability of publications alleged to be offensive, inflammatory and capable of promoting religious hostility, besides consequential reliefs against the authorities’ alleged failure to discharge their statutory obligations.

Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey submitted that the Trust had lodged multiple grievances before YouTube, filed a representation before the Ministry and preferred an appeal before the GAC, but no effective action had been taken. He referred to YouTube’s responses stating that it would not remove content merely on allegations of illegality and would comply with orders passed by a court of competent jurisdiction.

During the hearing, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed that the statutory appellate mechanism should first decide the petitioner’s pending appeal. The Court, therefore, directed the GAC to decide the matter within 10 days, while observing that if the petitioner remained aggrieved by the outcome, it would be at liberty to approach the Court again. The Court indicated that it would pass a detailed order separately.