Mumbai: High Court issues notice to Google, directs YouTube to delete secretly shot video of courtroom

Source:- financialexpress.com

The Bombay High Court today directed YouTube to forthwith delete a secretly-shot video of the proceedings in a high court judge’s courtroom and issued notices to the video-sharing website and search engine Google. A division bench of justices A S Oka and Anuja Prabhudessai sought their response as to why action under contempt of court should not be initiated against them. It was hearing a petition filed by the Bombay Bar Association seeking contempt action against those who recorded and uploaded the video on YouTube levelling allegations of corruption against Justice S J Kathawala of the high court.

“The 38-minute video uploaded last week by one ‘Right Mirror’ copies the format of a news channel and shows a person acting as anchor and taking interviews of several persons including a lawyer Nilesh Ojha making scandalous remarks against the judges of this high court. The video also includes clips of the court proceedings shot secretly by one Gopal Shetye,” petitioner’s counsel Rafiq Dada said today.

Dada informed the court that as mandated by law, Advocate General Rohit Deo has given consent to initiate contempt action against 10 people but has refused to give consent to initiate action against YouTube. Dada sought the court to take suo moto cognisance of the issue.

The court after hearing the arguments said the video will have to be removed first.