HC: Can’t act against govt official for private WA message

Madhya Pradesh HC has held that disciplinary action cannot be taken against an employee for uploading posts in a private WhatsApp group. “Any message in the form of text, photo or video sent in a WhatsApp group is confined to the members of the group. It cannot be said that the message had been made public,” observed Justice Vivek Rusia.

HC allowed the petition of ID Makrani against his suspension and chargesheet for forwarding an alleged “objectionable political” message in the WhatsApp group of employees in Alirajpur district.

The court order said that forwarding any message in a WhatsApp group does not come in any provision of the conduct rules.