Mumbai: Group Admin of a WhatsApp group cannot be held responsible for many objectionable posts by a member of the group, in the absence of common intention said Bombay High Court.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court observed that merely acting as an admin of a WhatsApp group would not amount to ‘common intention’ as the administrator cannot regulate content before it is posted on the group.
“A group administrator cannot be held vicariously liable for an act of a member of the group, who posts objectionable content, unless it is shown that there was common intention or pre-arranged plan acting in concert pursuant to such plan by such member of a WhatsApp group and the administrator. Common intention cannot be established in a case of WhatsApp service user merely acting as a group administrator,” Justices ZA Haq and MA Borkar observed.
The Bombay Hight Court bench passed the order while quashing a trail against a WhatsApp group admin accused of making sexually colored remarks: Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman: Abetment of a thing: for showing his helplessness in acting against the group member who had made objectionable remarks against a female member.
The woman argued that despite the member using dirty language against her, the admin had neither removed nor deleted the accused from the WhatsApp group. On the contrary, he expressed his helplessness, she argued.
Significantly, the bench held that members of these groups can be held liable for their posts, there is no provision in the IPC for holding a group admin vicariously liable.
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