Delhi HC pulls up Centre, asks why it is concealing contracts with social media giants

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday pulled up Centre for hiding contracts with social media giants.

"Why hiding contracts with Facebook, YouTube from us? " a bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva on Wednesday asked. "Why are you not filing them (contract)? Why are you hiding them from us? Why aren't you placing it? What is the hesitation? Why aren't you doing it? It's been five months since our May 7, 2015 direction."

On May 7, the Centre had sought time to place before the court the "exact nature of the contracts which have been entered into by the government and its departments with the social media sites on the internet". But later the government sought more time on July 30.

In response to the court's query, the government counsel said the Centre has "standard contracts" with the sites and they are "not tailor-made". The court, however, directed the Centre to ensure contracts it has pertaining to these social media giants be filed before the hearing date of October 28.