Delhi High Court today asked the government why it was "hiding" the contracts it has with social media sites like Facebook and Google and not submitted them despite orders issued five months ago.
"Why are you not filing them (contract)? Why are you hiding them from us? Why aren't you placing it? What is the hesitation? Why aren't you doing it? It's been five months since our May 7, 2015 direction," a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said.
On May 7, the Centre had sought time to place before the court the "exact nature of the contracts which have been entered into by the Government/Government Departments with the social media sites on the internet".
Thereafter on July 30, the government had again sought more time.
Today, the bench asked,"What do the contracts say? Because we have a lot to say on that."
In response to the court's query, the government counsel said the Centre has "standard contracts" with the sites and they are "not tailor-made".
To this, the bench remarked, "that is exactly what he (petitioner) wants to say".
The court's direction and observations came while hearing a PIL filed by former BJP leader K N Govindacharya who has raised questions on the usage of social media by government departments.
The court, however, directed the Centre to ensure that the contracts it has pertaining to Facebook, YouTube and Whatsapp be filed before the next date of hearing on October 28, so that the matter can be decided finally.
Advocate Virag Gupta, appearing for Govindacharya, told the court during the hearing that the "central government has become the biggest marketing agent for social media sites".
Gupta also contended that as per contracts the government has with these companies, it is "transferring/surrendering" all intellectual property rights of the data being uploaded on these sites.
