Delhi HC slams US domain firm for humiliating Arun Jaitley

Slamming two US-based networking/profiling companies for humiliating Indian leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Arun Jaitley, the Delhi high court on Tuesday permanently restrained them from advertising, using or auctioning his domain name www.arunjaitley.com.

Slamming two US-based networking/profiling companies for humiliating Indian leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Arun Jaitley, the Delhi high court on Tuesday permanently restrained them from advertising, using or auctioning his domain name www.arunjaitley.com.

HT Image

The court, taking serious note of the violation and awarding a Rs5 lakh compensation to Jaitley said US firms need to realise that any individual from India will never get any domain name of any renowned USA politician registered in this
fashion.

When contacted Jaitley told HT: "Yes, I am aware of the facts but I do not want to comment anything on this. Please report on the basis of the judgment."

Justice Manmohan Singh said: "Anomalous situations like the present one would continue to arise wherein names of the popular personalities like Arun Jaitley is being registered by a foreigner who have no concern with the domain name in question."

The order meant that Jaitley too like famous personalities such as Kumar Mangalam Birla, Julia Roberts and Madonna got his name included in the 'protected status'.

US-based Portfolio Brains was accused of "squatting upon" Jaitley's domain name to make money. Jaitley moved the court after he could not register a domain with his name. Network solutions showed the same as 'pending deletion'.

Later, he realised that it had been put up for auction at the price of $14,445. His lawyer Pratibha Singh argued before justice Manmohan Singh that when he requested them to transfer the domain to him, he was asked to participate in the auction.

Stating that steps needed to be taken to discourage trafficking in domain names, the court said, "Domain registrars cannot remain only as office receiving the domain applications without applying their mind on the aims and objects of the domain name policy operating worldwide."