Today, On 8th May, After the Supreme Court granted relief, Wikipedia filed an application in the Delhi High Court to withdraw its appeal against ANI. The High Court accepted the request and allowed the withdrawal of the appeal.
New Delhi: The Wikimedia Foundation has withdrawn its appeal before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court concerning a single-judge’s order that instructed it to remove allegedly defamatory edits on the Asian News International (ANI) Wikipedia page.
This development follows the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn the High Court’s order, stating that the single-judge can reconsider the matter.
In the High Court, Wikipedia’s appeal was scheduled for hearing today before Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Rajneesh Kumar Gupta.
In light of the Supreme Court ruling, Wikimedia submitted an application to withdraw the pending appeal, which the Court then permitted.
The Supreme Court had previously intervened in response to a petition from Wikipedia challenging a High Court single-judge order from April 2, which mandated the removal of alleged defamatory statements.
Wikipedia also contested the April 8 decision by the Division Bench led by Justice Singh that upheld the single-judge order.
The apex court found that the High Court’s orders were overly broad and lacked specificity regarding the alleged defamatory statements.
It stated,
“Such a broad interim relief is not capable of being specifically implemented. The reason is that there is no clarity on the issue on who will decide whether the contents are false, misleading and defamatory,”
The court granted ANI the opportunity to approach the single-judge again.
The matter will now be reconsidered by a single-judge.
ANI’s lawsuit claimed that the Wikimedia Foundation permitted anonymous Wikipedia users to label the news agency as a “propaganda tool” for the current Central government.
Following this, the page underwent several edits.
On July 9, 2024, the High Court issued summons to Wikipedia, directing it to provide information about three individuals who made edits to ANI’s Wikipedia page. Wikipedia opposed this order and opted to serve notices to these users directly rather than disclosing their identities publicly.
Case Title: Wikimedia Foundation Inc & Ors vs. ANI Media Pvt. Ltd.
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