The Delhi High Court on Friday directed all social networking sites, including Google Inc and Facebook, to appoint a grievance officer and disclose their grievance redressal mechanism by publishing the same on their webpages within two weeks.
The order came after the court observed that certain intermediary guidelines laid down by the Central Government were not being followed by these websites. The court also directed the Central Government to inform the public about the grievance redressal mechanism and ensure that these social networking sites abide by the directives.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru directed Google Inc and Facebook to display on their websites the name and contact details of the grievance officer. The bench observed that “they (the social networking sites) cannot flout the law just because they are a foreign company.”
The court also sought the Centre’s stand on the petitioner’s allegation that the Delhi Police, the Indian Railways and others have created accounts on social networking sites despite Government departments being barred from doing so under the law.
The court said the Information Technology (Intermediaries) Rules mandate that all social networking sites have to publish the name and contact details of the grievance officer. “We direct other intermediaries that the compliance (of the Rules) be done in two weeks,” it said.
The court's direction came on a PIl filed by former BJP leader KN Govindacharya alleging that the websites have no mechanism for protecting children from online abuse.
The petitioner’s counsel, Virag Gupta, argued that as per the rules, the grievance officer of the concerned website has to send an acknowledgement within 36 hours of receipt of any complaint and has to act upon it within 30 days.
Senior lawyer Arvind Nigam, appearing for Google, submitted that the website has a dedicated cell as well as a team to deal with grievances, but the site has not given the name of any officer.