Overview
- The Delhi High Court on Friday told the Centre’s Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) to decide within 15 days an appeal seeking removal of Dhruv Rathee’s YouTube video and warned it would treat any disregard of the order sternly.
- Rathee uploaded the contested video on March 21, in which he said certain Hindu deities consumed meat and alcohol, and the clip has since drawn millions of views from his large subscriber base.
- The petitioner, lawyer Amita Sachdeva, first complained to YouTube’s resident grievance officer and filed an appeal to the GAC after YouTube declined to remove the video, saying the appeal has remained pending beyond the statutory timeframe.
- Government counsel told the court that intermediaries must exercise due diligence to remove content that harms social harmony, while Google’s lawyers said the platform has filed a response to the grievance and will follow any judicial direction.
- A parallel criminal complaint is under way at a magistrate court, which has sought an action‑taken report from police, and the GAC’s decision could affect whether administrative removal or criminal action follows.