In a matter concerning a Ram and Sita video by Rathee, the bench has given the government’s Grievance Appellate Committee a 15-day window to determine if it should be left up on the site. They made it known that they will be hard on anyone who doesn’t comply.
What the court ordered
This is what happened when Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma was winding up a petition from lawyer Amita Sachdeva. She had been after some action on her appeal to have the video pulled. The judge told the GAC, which is under the MeitY, to get to a decision in two weeks.
There was no ambiguity in the order: the court wants this handled with some alacrity. Not sticking to the schedule would be a problem for the bench.
Why the video is in hot water
Sachdeva’s case is over a piece put up on March 21 called ‘Can Hindus Eat Beef? | Kerala Story 2 Exposed’. In it, Rathee puts forward the view that Lord Ram, Sita and Krishna were not averse to meat or liquor. The petitioner has no time for that, calling it defamatory and an attack on the deities.
She said she had already been to YouTube’s Resident Grievance Officer and then to the GAC. But in her writ, she put it to the court that the GAC has let the clock run out on the matter, as per Rule 3A(4) of the IT Rules of 2021.
And there is a side to this in the Saket Court as well, where criminal proceedings are afoot. An Action Taken Report was asked for from the local SHO on an application to file an FIR over the video.
The word from the government and Google
For the Union, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma put it to the court that YouTube should have done its due diligence and put away what he saw as content that stirs up hate. He called the video both harmful and divisive.
Sharma’s point was that Google should either come clean and say they will take it down, or let the division bench have its way. He also wanted some guarantees that the kind of material that sows discord won’t be on the platform.
Google’s side of the story, as put to the court, is that they have been in touch with Sachdeva and an appeal is in front of the GAC. The wheels of the grievance process are turning, they said.
The man behind the channel
With 32.4 million followers, Rathee is one of the bigger names on YouTube. The video in question makes the case for the deities’ consumption of meat and alcohol, and it has riled people up enough to land in court, as the petition shows.
It is a case in point for how much attention is being paid to big creators these days when it comes to faith and free speech. Now that the GAC has 15 days to rule, the focus moves from the court to the regulators.
Key positions at a glance
As it was laid out in court:
– Court: 15 days for the GAC to decide.
– Petitioner: The video is an affront to Hindu deities.
– Centre: The intermediary should have nixed the content.
– Google: We have an appeal with the GAC.
Where we go from here
The GAC, the body meant to handle such appeals under the 2021 IT Rules, will have the final say on whether the video is up or down. The High Court has made sure there is a deadline to it.
Any dallying on the committee’s part will be noted by the court. It is a reminder to the tech world and those who make content that you can’t ignore procedural time limits in a dispute like this.
Now the ball is in the GAC’s court. How they handle it will show how India’s system for dealing with grievances works when online expression and matters of public order and religion come head to head.
