Supreme Court grants relief to Wikipedia, sets aside Delhi HC order in ANI defamation case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India set aside a Delhi High Court order directing Wikipedia to remove allegedly defamatory content from its page about Asian News International (ANI), providing relief to the Wikimedia Foundation. 

The decision, delivered by a bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, criticised the High Court’s directive as “very broadly worded” and impractical to implement, while granting ANI the liberty to seek a fresh injunction for specific content before a single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court.

The case stems from a defamation suit filed by ANI against Wikipedia, alleging that anonymous edits on the platform’s page about the news agency contained “false, misleading, and defamatory” statements regarding its credibility and editorial practices. 

ANI sought Rs 2 crore in damages and the removal of the contentious content. On April 2, 2025, Delhi High Court’s Justice Subramonium Prasad issued an interim injunction ordering Wikipedia to take down the statements, deeming them “ex-facie defamatory.” 

A Division Bench upheld this order on April 8, directing Wikipedia to comply with the takedown and remove the page’s protection status to prevent further defamatory edits.

Wikipedia challenged these orders in the Supreme Court, arguing that the directives were vague and failed to specify which statements were defamatory, making compliance challenging. 

The Wikimedia Foundation also contested an earlier High Court order to disclose the identities of three individuals who edited ANI’s page, a matter resolved through a consent order on November 11, 2024.

During Thursday’s hearing, the Supreme Court expressed concern over the High Court’s broad injunction, questioning, “Who will decide what content on Wikipedia is false?” The bench noted that the order’s lack of specificity rendered it unenforceable and set it aside, emphasising that any future relief sought by ANI must target specific content. The Court clarified that ANI could approach the Delhi High Court’s single-judge bench for a tailored interim injunction, to be considered on its merits without influence from the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The apex court’s decision also addressed a related contempt case, where the Delhi High Court had taken issue with a Wikipedia page titled “Asian News International v. Wikimedia Foundation,” which referenced a judge allegedly threatening to shut down Wikipedia in India. 

On April 9, 2025, the Supreme Court reserved judgment on Wikipedia’s appeal against the takedown order for this page, stressing that contempt findings must be supported by a prima facie reasoning.

ANI’s counsel agreed to the setting aside of the High Court orders, provided they could seek fresh relief, a condition the Supreme Court accommodated in its order.