Non-transparent system will have to go: Delhi HC pulls up Wikipedia

The court of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was hearing an appeal moved by WMF against a single-judge order of August 20 where it had directed the Foundation to disclose the details of four administrators in a defamation suit filed by media house ANI against WMF pertaining to edits made in its page on the news agency.

The division bench took objection to WMF’s stance challenging single-judge Justice Navin Chawla’s order on the grounds that parties cannot be directed to disclose details without an injunction or takedown order, that is, without a preliminary finding of “legal wrong”, as argued by senior advocate Akhil Sibal, representing WMF.

CJ Manmohan orally remarked, “Suppose someone has made slanderous allegations, you will not disclose?”

Sibal pointed out that WMF does not function like an intermediary but is rather based on an architecture of self-regulation through a community of registered and unregistered users who can make edits, with checks and balances ensured through “administrators” and “bureaucrats” in the community, all of whom are anonymous.

Sibal additionally submitted that such direct disclosure orders can become a precedent and added that they are challenging the same “on principle”.

Unimpressed by WMF’s argument, CJ Manmohan remarked, “The system cannot be a cloak… The architecture has been devised by you… You’re more than an intermediary… Your system will have to go, you’re a non-transparent system… You’re not even telling us who is the author of this. You can’t get away by saying someone is an agent… You’re protecting the identity of the person who has done this… We are warning you…”