‘Completely Intolerable In Law’: Delhi HC Restrains Youtube Channels From Publishing Misleading Content On Aaradhya Bachchan’s Health

The Delhi High Court has restrained several youtube channels from disseminating misleading content regarding the health of Aaradhya Bachchan, daughter of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Bachchan.

The bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar observed that every child is entitled to be treated with honour and respect and disseminating misleading information relating to a child, especially as regards her physical or mental wellbeing, is completely intolerable in law.

“Every child is entitled to be treated with honour and respect, be she the child of a celebrity or the child of a commoner. Dissemination of misleading information relating to a child, especially as regards her physical or mental wellbeing, is something which is completely intolerable in law”, the Court said.

Aaradhya Bachchan through her father Abhishek Bachchan had approached the High Court after videos were circulated on Youtube stating that Aaradhya Bachchan is critically ill, to the extent that one of the videos even claimed that she was no more.

Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan appeared for petitioners whereas Advocate Mamta Rani Jha appeared for Google LLC.

The Court noted that morphed pictures have been used in the said videos with one of the videos even showing a child surrounded by wreaths.

“…it is not the first time that such misleading information is being circulated in respect of celebrities, where the information relates to a child of tender years, it reflects a particularly morbid perversity on the part of the person circulating such information, with complete and resolute apathy to the interests of the child who is targeted.”, the Court observed.

The Court also held that Google LLC, which runs the YouTube platform, is duty bound, in law, to ensure strict compliance with the entire statutory regime relating to intermediaries by which it is governed.

The Court directed Google LLC to set out in detail its policy, so as to ensure that it remains in compliance with Rule 3(1)(b) of the 2021 Intermediary Guidelines Rules (as amended) as also whether, after the amendment of the said rules, Google LLC effected any change in its policy so as to bring it in line with the amendments effected thereby.

The Court directed Google LLC to disclose the identity and all contact details of Defendants in the case including their Basic Subscriber Information (BSI), name, email IDs, IP address and all other information.

“On the plaintiffs bringing to the notice of Defendant 10 any other video clip which is uploaded on its YouTube platform, dealing with the physical health and well-being of Plaintiff 1, Defendant 10 shall proceed immediately to take down the said URL(s)”, the Court added.

The Court issued summons to the defendants, present at the YouTube channel IDs.

The Court directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block access to the contents uploaded by the Defendants-Youtube Channels.

The matter is now posted to July 13 for further hearing.

Cause Title- Aaradhya Bachchan And Anr. v. Bollywood Time & Ors.

Click here to read/download Order