WhatsApp Group Admin Not Liable For Objectionable Post By Members: Court

The order was passed last month and a copy of it was made available on April 22.

An administrator of a WhatsApp group cannot be held criminally liable for an objectionable post by another member of the group, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has held and quashed a case of sexual harassment lodged against a 33-year-old man. The order was passed last month and a copy of it was made available on April 22. A division bench headed by Justice Z A Haq and A B Borkar noted that an administrator of a WhatsApp group has only limited powers of adding or deleting members to the group and does not have the power to regulate or censor the content posted in the group.The court passed its order on an application filed by Kishor Tarone (33), the administrator of a WhatsApp group. He was seeking to quash the case registered against him in Gondia district in 2016 under Sections 354-A(1)(iv) (making sexually coloured remarks), 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and 107 (abetment) of the IPC and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.