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WHATSAPP GROUP ADMIN NOT LIABLE FOR MEMBER’S POST : HIGH COURT

The Madurai bench of Madras High Court recently granted relief to an administrator of a WhatsApp group in an FIR registered over offensive messages posted in the group by a member. The High Court has reiterated that WhatsApp group admin cannot be held liable for objectionable content posted by members. 

The court added, however, that if additional evidence is collected that demonstrates the administrator was engaged in the crime, he can be convicted according to the law. 

The Madurai Bench referred to the Kishore v. State Maharashtra of the Bombay High Court which ruled that a WhatsApp group admin must be deleted from the list of accused if he did not play any part in the crime committed by group members other than being an admin.

However, the Court also held that if another material is gathered that shows the admin being involved in the crime, he may be tried according to the law.

In Kishor v. State of Maharashtra an application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was filed before the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the charge sheet that named the applicant as an accused. The applicant was charged for being a WhatsApp admin of a group in which one of the members allegedly used filthy language including sexual coloured remarks against another member of the same group.

According to the Bombay High Court in Kishor,

“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.”

In other words, a WhatsApp admin does not incur liability solely on the ground that he/she holds such a position within the group. Thus, even if the admin does not remove the member who posted objectionable content on the group, he/she would still not be liable.

Similarly, while determining a civil defamation case, the Delhi High Court in Ashish Bhalla v. Suresh Chawdhary observed that an admin of a group cannot be held liable. According to the Delhi High Court –

“When an online platform is created, the creator thereof cannot expect any of the members thereof to indulge in defamation and defamatory statements made by any member of the group cannot make the Administrator liable therefor. It is not as if without the Administrator's approval of each of the statements, the statements cannot be posted by any of the members of the Group on the said platform.”

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