Delhi High Court directs immediate removal of URLs after hacking attempts against Dominos Pizza customer data

The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday, allowed removal of uniform resource locators (URLs) created by unidentified hackers that illegally shared the data of thousands of customers of Dominos Pizza, on the internet. (Jubilant Food Works vs. Union of India).Justice Yogesh Khanna stated that the pizza chain, operated by Jubilant Food Works Ltd., may give a written representation to the investigating agency on such issues, after which the intermediaries would be notified to take further action within 72 hours..The petitioner, Jubilant Food Works, approached the High Court claiming that the hackers had illegally accessed and hosted the data from secure databases leading to a mammoth breach of the customers’ privacy.“If the URLs are not immediately removed or disabled, the hackers would continue to further compromise the data of the petitioner’s customers on the internet, thus invading their privacy and causing irreparable harm to the petitioner’s customers,” the plea said..The counsel for petitioner, Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, also relied upon the judgement of this Court in X vs. Union of India passed in April 2021, in which Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani laid down the procedure for the removal of offensive content from the internet and established rules for intermediaries and governmental agencies with respect to the same..The counsel for the Central government assured the Court that measures are being taken to tackle the situation.“The learned counsel for UOI is present and he submits the URLs supplied to them have already been blocked and they shall continue to take proactive steps as and when the complaints shall be filed by the petitioner before them,” the Court noted. .Justice Yogesh Khanna further observed that the other respondents including the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police are also obligated under the rules established in X vs. Union of India.“Besides this there are other respondents who are also directed to act as per law, including those of the observations/directions laid down in X (supra).”.Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan represented the Petitioners herein and the Respondents were represented by Advocates Kirtiman Singh & Piyush Singhal..[Read Order]