Wikipedia model not completely dependable, cautions SC

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said this in its judgment in a case which raised the question regarding correct classification of imported 'AllinOne Integrated Desktop Computer’ under the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985.

The bench noted that the adjudicating authorities, especially the Commissioner of Customs (Appeal), while coming to their respective conclusions, had extensively referred to online sources such as Wikipedia to support their conclusions.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday cautioned courts and adjudicating authorities from relying on sources such as Wikipedia for dispute resolution, saying it follows a “user generated editing model that is not completely dependable in terms of academic veracity and can” even “promote misleading information…”.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said this in its judgment in a case which raised the question regarding correct classification of imported ‘AllinOne Integrated Desktop Computer’ under the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985.

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Sounding a word of caution, Justice Surya Kant writing for the bench said, “While we expressly acknowledge the utility of these platforms which provide free access to knowledge across the globe, but we must also sound a note of caution against using such sources for legal dispute resolution. We say so for the reason that these sources, despite being a treasure trove of knowledge, are based on a crowdsourced and user generated editing model that is not completely dependable in terms of academic veracity and can promote misleading information as has been noted by this court on previous occasions also.”

The ruling said that “courts and adjudicating authorities should rather make an endeavor to persuade the counsels to place reliance on more reliable and authentic sources”.

The judgment referred to a 2008 decision of the apex court in the Commissioner of Customs, Bangalore v Acer India (P) Ltd case wherein a two-judge bench had said Wikipedia “is an online encyclopaedia and information can be entered therein by any person and as such it may not be authentic”.

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