Petitioner claims- ‘YouTube diverted attention, so failed in exam’ SC said- pay damages for shoddy petition

The Supreme Court on the contrary imposed a fine on the petitioner seeking compensation of Rs 75 lakh from Google India. The petitioner said that due to the advertisements shown on YouTube, his attention was distracted and he failed in the examination. The court said that this is a very bad petition. Court’s time was wasted through this.

The petitioner, Anand Kishore Chowdhary, a resident of Panna in Madhya Pradesh, had said that he was preparing for a state service examination. During this, while watching YouTube, he continuously found such advertisements, which had sexual content. This distracted his attention and he did not get success in the examination. Regarding this, he had filed a petition demanding Google India to pay a fine of Rs 75 lakh. Anand had told in the petition that his attention was distracted by the advertisement, due to which he could not succeed in the paper.

What did the court say?

Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka got angry on seeing the petition. Justice Kaul said, “If you don’t want to watch then don’t watch the advertisement. Such shoddy petition is a complete waste of court’s time. You are being fined Rs 1 lakh.”

Seeing the strict attitude of the judges, the petitioner started pleading for mercy. He said, “I’m sorry.” On this, Justice Kaul said, “I will reduce the fine but will not forgive.” After this, the judges reduced the amount to Rs 25,000.