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Synopsis

The Kerala High Court recently disposed of the Public Interest Litigation seeking direction to block access to 'Telegram' in India. The plea also sought direction for all mobile and desktop applications to comply with the existing laws of our country.

The PIL was placed before the division bench of Chief Justice S.Manikumar and Justice Murali Purushothaman.

The petitioner, namely Athena Solomon, filed the plea and alleged that the circulation of obscene, vulgar sexual content which features women and child pornography content is promoted through Telegram.

It was also mentioned in the PIL that this App is also used for promoting international terrorism, for creating civil disruptions and there is no nodal officer or registered office in India.

"It is difficult for investigating agencies to find the culprit and to initiate a proper investigation," the plea further stated.

During the previous hearing on February 17, 2023, the main issue raised was that since there is neither a grievance officer nor any registered office in India for the messaging App therefore it was difficult to trace out the culprits and file a case against them. Thus, the petitioner sought the writ of mandamus or any other writ to block the use of Telegram in India.

Advocate Jaishankar V Nair, representing the Central Government while opposing the plea to block 'Telegram' submitted that the contact details of the grievance officer of Telegram are available in the URL available to the public on App's website.

"In case of violation, the petitioner can approach the grievance officer under the IT Rules 2021 and the grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and dispose of the same within 15 days of its receipt and receive and acknowledge any order, notice or direction issued by the appropriate Government," Adv Nair said.

He also mentioned Rule 3 (1)(a) by which it is mandatory for the intermediary to make reasonable efforts to cause the user of its computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that is obscene, pornographic, pedophilic, invasive of another’s privacy including bodily privacy, insulting or harassing on the basis of gender.

Moreover, he pointed out that apart from making a complaint to the intermediary-appointed Grievance Officer, the petitioner can also lodge a complaint with the law enforcement agency or the cybercrime cell or she can report on the Cybercrime Reporting Portal as well and submit the contact details of the grievance officer of Telegram. 

Since the petitioner agreed to approach the Grievance Officer, the court disposed of the plea.

Case Title: Athena Solomon. K vs. Union of India and Ors.

Statute: Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021