The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said it will issue directions to the Central government to take a decision on the removal of videos and other online content allegedly containing derogatory and inflammatory material about spiritual leader Shirdi Sai Baba.

The bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said a detailed order would be passed in the matter and that the order would also specify a timeline within which the government would have to take a decision.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, which manages the Saibaba Samadhi Temple in Shirdi. The Trust has sought the removal of YouTube videos and other online material that, according to it, portray Sai Baba in a derogatory manner.

The petition alleges that some of the online content describes Sai Baba as “Chand Miyan”, a “Jihadi”, British spy, murderer, rapist, dacoit and religious converter, among other allegations.

The Trust has claimed that the content is not part of genuine historical discussion or fair criticism but consists of unsubstantiated allegations that have the potential to provoke religious hostility and disturb communal harmony.

According to the plea, the allegedly objectionable videos and posts have been repeatedly uploaded, republished and circulated through multiple YouTube channels and anonymous or pseudonymous accounts. The Trust has alleged that similar content continues to appear online even after complaints were made to the platforms.

The Trust further claimed that it had approached YouTube and Google LLC through the grievance redressal mechanism under the Information Technology Rules. It said the complaints identified the relevant URLs, timestamps, transcripts and portions of the videos that were allegedly objectionable.

However, the platforms allegedly declined to determine the truthfulness of the claims and instead asked the Trust to approach the content creators or the courts.

The Trust subsequently approached the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), but claimed that these efforts did not result in effective relief.

Before the High Court, the Trust has sought directions for the removal of the allegedly objectionable content. It has also asked for guidelines to deal with online material that may affect religious sentiments and sought changes to the existing grievance redressal portal.

The petition also challenges certain limitations in the grievance mechanism. The Trust has argued that the 1,000-character limit for describing a complaint and the restriction of submitting only five URLs at a time make it difficult to explain lengthy and interconnected grievances involving multiple pieces of content.

Senior Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey appeared for the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust along with Advocates Saurav Agrawal, Ravi Sharma, Prachi Dubey, Rupraj Banerjee, Satyam Sharma, Harsh Khabar, Tushar Nair, Anusha Sinha, Aarya Bhat, Khushi Arora and Devangana Mishra.

If you want, I can also give you 5 catchy legal-news headlines and keywords in one row.