Subodh Gupta, Herdsceneand settle row: Anonymous sexual harassment allegations to be removed from Instagram account

Instagram handle 'Herdsceneand' yesterday informed the Delhi High Court that in a bid to settle the litigation, it was ready to remove the anonymous sexual harassment allegations against artist Subodh Gupta from its handle..The statement was made by counsel for the Instagram Account holder, Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal and lawyer Abhik Chimni before Single Judge Bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw..Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi, who represents Gupta, also informed that Gupta was agreeable to the settlement..Gupta had filed a defamation suit against 'Herdsceneand’ last year, following the publication of anonymous sexual harassment allegations against him..In view of the amicable settlement, the Court decreed the defamation suit in favour of Gupta and recorded that 'Herdsceneand' will remove the defamatory content posted by him/her on its account..In its written submission filed to the suit, 'Herdsceneand’ had contended that it was merely a ‘whistle-blower’ in the present case, a neutral platform which intended to bring out the instances of sexual misconduct and harassment in the Art Fraternity, as part of the #MeToo Movement..It was stated that in the absence of an Internal Committee to deal with such instances, the victims of sexual harassment wrote to 'Herdsceneand' about their personal experiences, knowing that the anonymity would protect them from retaliation in the hands of influential members of the Art Fraternity..During the proceedings, Herdsceneand maintained anonymity after it was granted liberty to file his/her vakalatnama in a sealed cover and to furnish redacted copies of his/her written statement, applications etc. to the other parties for the time being..On February 4, the Court was informed that the attempts were underway to amicably resolve row between Gupta and Herdsceneand..Following the suit, the Court had directed Instagram owner, Facebook Inc to submit the particulars of the person behind the account 'Hersceneand' to it in a sealed cover. It had also passed an order directing ‘Herdsceneand’ to restrain from posting on its Instagram account any content pertaining to Gupta..Directions were also passed to search engine, Google Inc to remove and block certain URLs to publications on the sexual harassment allegations against Gupta..Google was represented by Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam.