Google claims new Indian IT rules not applicable to its search engine; Delhi HC seeks Centre's stand

Google contended that the Delhi High Court, in its April 20 judgement, "mischaracterised" the search engine as a 'social media intermediary' or 'significant social media intermediary' as provided under the new rules.

US-based Google LLC has contended that India's new IT rules for digital media are not applicable to its search engine, and urged the Delhi High Court on Wednesday to set aside its single judge order which applied them to the company while dealing with an issue related to the removal of offending content from the internet. The single judge's decision had come while dealing with a matter in which a woman's photographs were uploaded on a pornographic website by some miscreants and despite court orders, the content could not be removed in entirety from the World Wide Web and "errant parties merrily continued" to re-post and redirect it to other sites. A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the Centre, Delhi government, Internet Service Providers Association of India, Facebook, the pornographic site and the woman, on whose plea the single judge's ruling had come, and sought their responses to Google's plea by July 25.