Google India and Facebook India were on Thursday provided interim relief by the Delhi high court which exempted their executives from personally appearing before the trial court to face criminal proceedings in a case of alleged webcasting of objectionable content.
The court, however, deferred till May 3 the decision on their pleas seeking quashing of the summons issued to them by the trial court in the case. Justice Suresh Kait ordered that the two companies can be represented in the trial court by their lawyers instead of their executives till the next date of hearing. “Proceedings in the trial court to continue. The exemption application may be filed for the accused to be represented by their counsel,” Justice Kait said.
Senior advocate N.K. Kaul, appearing for Google India Pvt. Ltd, argued before the court that as per the law, the in-person presence of the executives of the company, which is a private party, was not required and the presence of its counsels before the court was sufficient.