{"id":262535,"date":"2022-02-25T17:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T11:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=262535"},"modified":"2022-03-04T08:46:14","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T03:16:14","slug":"whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/","title":{"rendered":"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Kerala High Court: <\/strong>While addressing the question of whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive content posted by a group member, Dr Kauser Edappagath, J., held that a person can be criminally liable for the acts of another if they are party to the offence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">High Court remarked that,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">There is no law by which an Admin of any messaging service can be held liable for a post made a member in the group.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gone are the days, when we used a short message service or a formal website chat-box to communicate with our kith and kin. They were replaced by personalized messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber etc.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A person who creates the WhatsApp group is called the Administrator of the group and he may also make other members as Group Admin. The said admin\/s has certain powers bestowed upon i.e., adding\/removing a member etc. Due to the lack of moderation of these groups, the members are at almost free reign to post\/share any kind of data that they wish in terms of messages, voice notes, videos, songs, etc.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">It has been stated that many members of a WhatsApp group may put objectionable contents. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The legal consequences and potential liability of the Administrator, stemming from such an objectionable post has come up for consideration in the present case.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Factual Background<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Petitioner had created a WhatsApp Group, wherein he had made two more admins, accused 1 and CW4. Accused 1 had posted a porn video in the group depicting children engaged in a sexually explicit act.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In view of the above incident, crime was registered against the accused 1 for offences under Sections 67B (a)(b) and (d) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Sections 13,14 and 15 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, 2012. Later, a petition was arrayed as accused 2 being the creator of the group and co-administrator.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Analysis, Law and Decision<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">High Court noted that though the video was posted by the accused 1, petitioner was arrayed as co-accused merely in the capacity as the creator\/administrator of the group.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The crux in the matter is whether the petitioner could be vicariously held liable for the actions of the accused 1?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">\u201cVicarious liability is a form of a strict, secondary liability that arises under the common law doctrine of agency; respondent superior \u2013 the responsibility of the superior for the acts of their subordinate, or, in a broader sense, the responsibility imposed on one person for the wrongful actions of another person. Such a liability arises usually because of some or the other legal relationship between the two. This often occurs in the context of civil law\u2014for example, in employment cases. In a criminal context, vicarious liability assigns guilt, or criminal liability, to a person for wrongful acts committed by someone else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <em>Sham Sunder v. State of Haryana<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/I7Fe1oAF\">(1989) 4 SCC 630<\/a>, had dealt with the issue of criminal vicarious liability many a time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Bench expressed that vicarious liability can be fastened only by reason of a provision of a statute and not otherwise. Therefore, the Court held that,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">\u201cIn the absence of a special penal law creating vicarious liability, an Admin of a WhatsApp group cannot be held liable for the objectionable post by a group member.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Further, the High Court added that, there is no master-servant or a principal-agent relationship between the Admin of a WhatsApp group and its members. It goes against basic principles of criminal law to hold an Admin liable for a post published by someone else in the group.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In <em>Ashish Bhalla v. Suresh Chawdhary<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/g9d27Vj9\">2016 SCC OnLine Del 6329<\/a>, the Delhi High Court observed that defamation and defamatory statements made by any member of the group cannot make the Administrator liable therefor.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Creator or Administrator of a WhatsApp group, merely acting in that capacity, cannot be vicariously held liable for any objectionable content posted by a member of the group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In view of the facts of the present matter, Bench noted that there was nothing on record to suggest that the petitioner had published or transmitted or caused to be published or transmitted in any electronic form the alleged obscene material or he browsed or downloaded the said material or, in any way, facilitated abusing children online so as to attract Sections 67B (a), (b) or (d) of the IT Act. Similarly, the prosecution had no case that the petitioner used children in any form of media for his sexual gratification or used them for pornographic purposes or stored, for commercial purposes, any child pornographic material in order to attract Sections 13, 14 or 15 of the POCSO Act.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hence, the Court invoked its extraordinary jurisdiction under Section 482 CrPC and the proceedings against the petitioner were qushed.[Manual v. State of Kerala, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/5FTpPvX8\"><b>2022 SCC OnLine Ker 990<\/b><\/a>, decided on 23-2-2022]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Advocates before the Court:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the Petitioner: Anil Kumar M. Sivaraman and C. Chandrasekharan, Advocates<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<pre>For the Respondent: KK Pushpalatha -SR PP\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kerala High Court: While addressing the question of whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8808,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-highcourts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.4 (Yoast SEO v26.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses | SCC Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive content posted by a group member,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive content posted by a group member,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SCC Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scc.online\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-25T11:30:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-04T03:16:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/KeralaHC-e1521442636157.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"887\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bhumika Indulia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bhumika Indulia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/\",\"name\":\"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses | SCC Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-25T11:30:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-04T03:16:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/919ec47cc1b871b362af05740398033a\"},\"description\":\"whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive content posted by a group member,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"SCC Times\",\"description\":\"Bringing you the Best Analytical Legal News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/919ec47cc1b871b362af05740398033a\",\"name\":\"Bhumika Indulia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Me-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Me-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Bhumika Indulia\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/author\/editor_1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses | SCC Times","description":"whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive content posted by a group member,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses","og_description":"whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive content posted by a group member,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/","og_site_name":"SCC Times","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scc.online\/","article_published_time":"2022-02-25T11:30:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-04T03:16:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1330,"height":887,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/KeralaHC-e1521442636157.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Bhumika Indulia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bhumika Indulia","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/","name":"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses | SCC Times","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-25T11:30:39+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-04T03:16:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/919ec47cc1b871b362af05740398033a"},"description":"whether the creator or administrator of a WhatsApp group is criminally liable for offensive content posted by a group member,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/25\/whether-the-creator-or-administrator-of-a-whatsapp-group-is-criminally-liable-for-offensive-content-posted-by-a-group-member\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Can an Admin of a messaging service group be held criminally liable for the offensive content posted by member of a group? Kerala HC addresses"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/","name":"SCC Times","description":"Bringing you the Best Analytical Legal News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/919ec47cc1b871b362af05740398033a","name":"Bhumika Indulia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Me-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Me-150x150.jpg","caption":"Bhumika Indulia"},"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/author\/editor_1\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":262571,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/02\/27\/8-legal-stories-of-the-week-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":262535,"position":0},"title":"8 Legal Stories of the Week: From the release of movie Gangubai Kathiawadi to WhatsApp Admin&#8217;s liability if a member of group shares objectionable content on group and many more such stories","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"February 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's our interesting picks of the week from the stories reported \u201cNotaries operating from public taxis around vicinity of Court\u201d: Dignity of the profession needs to be maintained and the legal profession cannot be allowed to function from the streets | Bom HC\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201c\u2026though we have full sympathy for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;High Court Round Up&quot;","block_context":{"text":"High Court Round Up","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/columns-for-roundup\/high-court-round-up\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Legal-Stories_Feb.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Legal-Stories_Feb.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Legal-Stories_Feb.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Legal-Stories_Feb.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Legal-Stories_Feb.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":247500,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/04\/22\/administrator-of-whatsapp-group\/","url_meta":{"origin":262535,"position":1},"title":"Bom HC | Can administrator of WhatsApp group be held criminally liable for objectionable posts of a group member? HC answers","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"April 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Bombay High Court: The Division Bench of Z.A. Haq and Amit B. Borkar, JJ., while addressing the matter, observed that: In the absence of a specific penal provision creating vicarious liability, an administrator of a WhatsApp group cannot be held liable for objectionable content posted by a member of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Case Briefs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":236747,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2020\/10\/05\/madras-hc-can-an-advocate-be-made-criminally-liable-under-s-500-ipc-who-acts-as-per-the-instructions-of-his-or-her-client-hc-explains-proposition\/","url_meta":{"origin":262535,"position":2},"title":"Madras HC | Can an advocate be made criminally liable under S. 500 IPC who acts as per the instructions of his or her client? HC explains proposition","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"October 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Madras High Court:\u00a0G.K. Ilathiraiyan, J., observed that, Section 500 of the Penal Code, 1860 cannot be attracted wherein an advocate acts professionally on the instructions of his or her client. The reason for present criminal original petitions was to quash the proceedings of Metropolitan Magistrate having been taken cognizance for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Case Briefs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":222928,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2019\/12\/07\/chh-hc-an-advocate-cannot-be-held-criminally-liable-merely-because-his-opinion-is-found-not-acceptable-or-for-want-of-greater-professional-competence\/","url_meta":{"origin":262535,"position":3},"title":"Chh HC | An advocate cannot be held criminally liable merely because his opinion is found not acceptable or for want of greater professional competence","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"December 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Chhattisgarh High Court:\u00a0Sanjay K. Agarwal, J., quashed the criminal proceedings against the petitioner, an Advocate, who was arraigned in a criminal case registered under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B IPC. The petitioner, an Advocate empanelled with the Dena Bank, had provided a non-encumbrance certificate regarding the property of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Case Briefs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":279678,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2022\/12\/15\/can-a-customer-in-a-brothel-be-proceeded-against-criminally-under-the-immoral-traffic-prevention-act-1956-kerala-high-court-answers-legal-research-legal-news-updates\/","url_meta":{"origin":262535,"position":4},"title":"Can a \u2018customer\u2019 in a brothel be proceeded against criminally under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956; Kerala High Court answers","author":"Editor","date":"December 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Kerala High Court held that the words \u2018person with whom such prostitution is carried on\u2019 as appearing in section 7(1) of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 will include a \u2018customer\u2019. Thus, a customer in a brothel can be proceeded against criminally.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Case Briefs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kerala High Court","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/MicrosoftTeams-image-310.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":232122,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2020\/07\/13\/bom-hc-prohibitory-order-holding-admin-of-social-media-groups-liable-for-dissemination-of-false-information-was-in-force-till-8th-june-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":262535,"position":5},"title":"Bom HC | Prohibitory order holding admin of social media groups liable, for dissemination of false information, was in force till 8th June, 2020","author":"Bhumika Indulia","date":"July 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Bombay High Court:\u00a0A Division Bench of A.A. Sayed and M.S. Karnik, JJ., addressed a Public Interest Litigation, with regard to quashing and setting aside of an Order dated 23rd May, 2020 which prohibited any person or group of persons from dissemination of information through various messaging and social media platforms\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Case Briefs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Case Briefs","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/category\/casebriefs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bombay-HC.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8808"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}