Online Censorship: Google India Dropped From Legal Suit

A Delhi court on Friday dropped Google India from a civil law suit. However, Google India's parent company in the US is remaining as one of websites accused of carrying offensive contents.

As many as 22 online-based companies were hauled into a legal soup for allegedly hosting objectionable contents on their websites. However, now only a handful of companies will face the trial as about 16 online firms were dropped from the civil suit.

Several online firms were taken to the law of court in the wake of the Indian government's objection to the websites that allegedly carried objectionable contents, which had the potential to attract the provision under section 153 A, 153 B and 198A. Any content that instigates enmity between different groups and threatens national integrity is eligible for punishment under the above mentioned sections.

Administrative civil judge Parveen Singh on Friday let off Google from the legal proceedings as he found the substance in the latter's (Google's) argument. Google pleaded the bench that "it did not operate any social networking website and that it was merely a software development firm functioning as a subsidiary of Google Inc. "

However, the court retained the US-based parent company of the accused search engine giant in list of companies that might face the trial for posting objectionable content online.

A few days ago, other online players like Yahoo and Microsoft were also relieved from the legal tangle.

Exbii, IMC India, My Lot, Shyni Blog, Topix, Zombie Time and Boradreader are among other online entities that were freed from legal proceedings as the bench recognized them as ineligible parties to the civil suit.

Plaintiff Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi, an individual petitioner, moved the court in December seeking to prosecute 22 social networking websites for allegedly promoting several objectionable contents.