‘Intermediaries can’t claim protection from defamation’

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that search engines like Google can’t claim any protection for the posting of defamatory contents, prior to reading down of the provision of the Information Technology Act in 2009 that required an internet service operator to take down third-party information only upon a court direction.

“We hold that Section 79 of the Act, prior to its substitution, did not protect an intermediary in regard to the offence under Section 499/500 (defamation) of the IPC,” a bench of Justices Mohan M Shantanagoudar and K M Joseph said.

The top court noted following substitution of Section 79 of the IT Act since October 27, 2009, and the judgement in the Shreya Singhal case,