The Wikipedia Foundation has withdrawn its appeal before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, challenging a single-judge order that had directed the takedown of allegedly defamatory edits made to the Wikipedia page of Asian News International (ANI).

The withdrawal follows a recent Supreme Court ruling that set aside both the single-judge and Division Bench orders. The apex court observed that the interim relief granted was overly broad and lacked clarity on which statements were considered defamatory, making the order difficult to implement. It emphasized the absence of a mechanism to determine whether content was false, misleading, or defamatory, and granted ANI the liberty to approach the single judge again.

The matter was listed today before Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Rajneesh Kumar Gupta of the Delhi High Court. Given the Supreme Court's directions, the Division Bench permitted Wikimedia to withdraw its pending appeal.

Previously, Wikimedia had approached the Supreme Court against two High Court orders: the April 2 order from the single judge directing the removal of the alleged defamatory content, and the April 8 decision by a Division Bench led by Justice Singh, which upheld the initial order.

The controversy arose from ANI's suit alleging that Wikipedia had allowed anonymous users to describe the news agency as a "propaganda tool" for the central government. The ANI Wikipedia page had undergone multiple edits containing similar characterizations.

The High Court had issued summons to Wikimedia on July 9, 2024, and directed it to disclose the identities of three users who made the contentious edits. Wikimedia resisted the order, opting instead to serve notices to the users directly without making their identities public.

The matter will now be reconsidered afresh by a single judge of the Delhi High Court.