oppn parties WhatsApp Group Admin Not Vicariously Liable For Action of Members

Story Of The Day

Assessee Not Responsible For Ensuring TDS Is Paid To The Government: Delhi HC
OPINIONS : Strongly Expressed

January 22, 2025

People Are Talking About

Rohit Warns Sarfaraz, Police Use It To Warn Two-Wheeler Riders

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
WhatsApp Group Admin Not Vicariously Liable For Action of Members

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-12-28 08:27:39

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

The Madras High Court has confirmed that the admins of a WhatsApp group cannot be held vicariously liable for the actions of the members in the group due to the very nature of the application and the limited powers the app allows to them. The court cited the Bombay HC judgment on this issue in the case Kishor versus The State of Maharashtra to reiterate that since the administrator does not have the powers to regulate, moderate or censor the content posted by other members of the group, he or she cannot be held liable for their actions.

The case was about a WhatsApp group of lawyers in Tamil Nadu, called Karur Lawyers, a member of which filed a criminal case against the admin and a member over a "highly offensive" post by the latter. The admin approached the HC pleading innocence as it was not in his power to prevent some members from posting content found offensive by other members.

In the Bombay HC order cited by the court, the learned judges had ruled that the admin cannot be held for vicarious liability for the act of other members unless it was proved that "there was the common intention or pre-arranged plan acting in concert pursuant to such plan by such member of a WhatsApp group and the administrator."

This is the right legal interpretation. For, any WhatsApp administrator is only allowed by the makers of the app to admit new members or remove existing one, apart from changing the name, status and profile picture of the group or including other members as co-administrators. It is not in the hands of the admin to moderate, delete or censor any offending post which can only be done by one who originally posted. Hence, they cannot be held liable for something which is not in their power.

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

Turmoil In Mollywood

Turmoil In Mollywood

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

In Depth

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Editor's Pick

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.