New Delhi

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Centre's Grievance Appellate Committee to decide within 15 days a plea seeking the removal of a "defamatory" video by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee that it said hurt religious sentiments of the people.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, while dealing with a petition by lawyer Amita Sachdeva seeking direction to the appellate committee to decide the issue expeditiously, said any disregard of the court's order shall be viewed "sternly".

"The appellate authority shall decide the petitioner's appeal expeditiously within fifteen days under intimation to the court. In case of further grievance, you can file a fresh petition," the court said.

The petitioner contended that despite the passage of over two months, the committee, formed by the central government under the Information Technology regime, had not decided her appeal against Google's refusal to immediately remove the offending video.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma said an intermediary has a legal obligation to exercise due diligence and take down such content, including posts that hurt the sentiments of the majority community.

Google's counsel said it had responded to the appeal filed by the petitioner.

In the petition, Sachdeva said Rathee, on March 21, published a highly derogatory and communally sensitive video, which has garnered millions of views on YouTube and contains "false, misleading, and provocative statements insulting Bhagwan Shri Ram, Bhagwan Shri Krishna and Sita Devi."

The plea stated that besides sending a complaint to the Delhi Police's cyber cell, Sachdeva filed a formal grievance before YouTube's Resident Grievance Officer under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules seeking immediate removal of the offending video.

However, the grievance officer said they were "unable to identify any violations of their Community Guidelines," and an appeal was filed before the Grievance Appellate Committee on March 27, the plea said.

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".... despite the statutory mandate to decide the appeal within thirty days, the Grievance Appellate Committee has failed to dispose of the same. The offending video continues to remain publicly accessible on YouTube and is causing continuous injury to the religious sentiments of crores of Hindus," the plea said.