Blogger lands Google India in courtroom for defamation

Mumbai: The search firm Google India may trigger some new developments in the cyber law of India. The Mumbai based Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects, which provides construction machineries to medium and large construction companies, has filed a defamation case against Google India for hosting a series of articles on its blogging site, campaigning against its mines in Mozambique. The Bombay High Court has asked the search firm to furnish information about the blogger in an interim order, reported The Economic Times.

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Gremach, in its petition, said that a series of articles that amounted to a 'hate campaign' against the company were posted on Google's blogging site with a title 'Toxic Writer' between January and February.

Gremach sources said the company suspects corporate rivalry behind the hate campaign and has sought help from the Mumbai police's cyber crime cell. But, the investigations by the local police could not make a break through as Google's India office refused to co-operate with the investigators, he added.

In September 2007, Gremach acquired 75 percent stake in 11 coal mining licenses in the African country.

"Indian courts will have to decide on whether Google have to disclose the blogger's identity", says a corporate lawyer. The U.S. courts usually do not ask the websites to divulge identity of bloggers.

"This is for the first time a blogging platform company is being sued in India," said Anoop Narayanan, a partner in corporate law firm Majmudar & Co. "As we do not have any specific laws on this, the Indian court will have to consider the direct liability of Google into this taking into consideration how important the disclosure is to the plaintiff (Gremach)," he said.

In 2006, Yahoo was accused by human rights activists of providing information to the Chinese police about bloggers who were later jailed for writing 'anti-China' articles.