Kerala High court today noted that admins of WhatsApp group are not responsible for condemnable posts by members of the group

The Kerala High court today held that admins or initiators of a WhatsApp group can’t be held vicariously liable for any condemnable data delivered on it by any of the members of the group.

The verdict by the Kerala high court delivered out while striking a POCSO case against the administrator of a WhatsApp group one of whose members had posted pornography related to child.

The Kerala high court delivered that as verdict by the High courts of Bombay and Delhi, "the only advantage benefited by the administrator of a WhatsApp group over other members in the group is that he can initiate the group by adding or deleting any of the members from the group".

The Kerala High court further said that the administrator of the group doesn’t have complete physical motion control or any particular control over what a group member is delivering in the group. Admin can’t moderate or censor messages or any activity in a group.

In this way the Kerala High court noted that thus admin of a WhatsApp group, only taking in that capacity, can’t be vicariously held liable for any condemnable posts delivered by a group member.

In the present case, the petitioner had initiated and started a WhatsApp group called 'FRIENDS' and he also made other two persons as administrators of that group along with himself and one of them delivered in the group a explicit content related to children involved in sexually uncensored act.

On this ground, cops filed criminal charges against that person and also accused him A1 and no.1 under the IT Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act.