SC Fines Man for “Atrocious” Petition Against YouTube

New Delhi: A man from Madhya Pradesh had approached the Supreme Court alleging that he could not clear a competitive exam as his attention got diverted by ‘explicit’ advertisements on YouTube. He had sought Rs 75 lakh compensation from Google India which owns YouTube.

The apex court dismissed the plea on Friday and slapped a cost of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner.

The top court termed the case filed by this Madhya Pradesh resident as “atrocious”.

“It is one of the most atrocious petitions filed under Article 32 (of the Constitution)…This kind of petitions are utter wastage of judicial time”, said the bench of Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka.

“If you don’t like an advertisement, don’t watch it,” the bench said, adding, “Why he chose to watch the advertisements is his prerogative”.

Initially, the bench while dismissing the plea imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner. Later, the petitioner urged the top court to forgive him and remove the cost imposed as he is unemployed. The bench reduced the cost to Rs 25,000.