Conflicts
of laws, Indian cyberspace and Google have
become
synonymous these days. Further, the position of US
companies, India, conflict of laws and criminal liabilities
has also become clear these days. This is so as of late many civil
and criminal cases have been filed against foreign companies and
social media websites.
However, this is just the beginning as cyber
litigations and disputes that are going to increase in India.
With this cases of overlapping jurisdictions would also arise. Take
the example of recent case where the Gmail id of an Indian was
involved. While the US court allowed
access to the same yet Indian court granted
an inunctions against disclosure of its password
and
information stored in the account.
The Plaintiff in this case argued that
as an India
citizen he had a right to privacy under the Indian Constitution and
that the defendants could not violate his right. The order was passed
ex-parte against an American law firm and Google’s e-mail id that
sent the communication pertaining to US court’s order.
Interestingly, the litigation before
the
US/California court pertains to a dispute between two other parties
and it appears that Plaintiff’s Gmail id may hold evidence relevant
to resolve dispute between these parties. The normal practice to seek
evidence in these cases is to issue “letters rogatory”, under the
Hague
Convention on Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial
Matters requesting the India to assist in the
collection
of evidence. Such letters rogatory can be enforced, in India, only by
High Courts, as per the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
It seems the US court did not consider
it necessary
to adopt that procedure. This may be so because Google is a US based
company over which US courts have primary jurisdiction. In fact, the
terms of service of Google clearly stipulates that all Gmail users
consent to be governed by the laws of the U.S. Google’s operation
is global in nature and it is required to comply with the laws of
various jurisdictions, including India.
To confer jurisdiction upon Indian
courts, the
Plaintiff argued that the cause of action in the present suit arose
in India when the Plaintiff created his Gmail id account in
Vishakhapatnam and also when he received the legal notice in
Vishakhapatnam. Let us see how the case would proceed in this regard.
