Delhi HC orders takedown of April 13 hearing videos from social media; issues notice to Kejriwal, Sisodia

The Delhi High Court today ordered the removal of all social media links carrying recordings of the April 13 court proceedings before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in connection with a recusal plea filed by Arvind Kejriwal.

During the hearing, the court was informed that major platforms like Google and Meta had already taken down the flagged content. The bench also made the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) a party to the case and issued notices to all respondents, including Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and others, asking them to file their replies.

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A bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet Arora was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh. The plea alleges that Kejriwal, Sisodia, journalist Ravish Kumar, and others recorded and circulated court proceedings on social media without permission.

The court made it clear that recording and sharing court proceedings is strictly prohibited under High Court rules unless prior approval is taken. It also referred to provisions under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent unlawful content from being shared.

The bench directed that any remaining links must be removed immediately. It added that if such videos appear again, platforms must act quickly to take them down once informed and notify the Registrar General.

The judges also raised concern over the impact such circulation could have on the judiciary. Meanwhile, intermediaries told the court that tracing the original uploader or automatically blocking such content remains technically challenging.

Senior Advocate Arvind P Datar, appearing for one of the platforms, said the content was removed after official communication and stressed that intermediaries cannot function as censors. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma told the court the issue directly affects the credibility of the judiciary and needs serious attention.

The case is now scheduled for further hearing on July 6.