A man’s access to his email account was revoked for nearly a year by Google after he uploaded a childhood photo of himself bathing with his grandmother on Google Drive. Neel Shukla, a computer engineer, faced this ordeal, prompting him to seek legal recourse from the Gujarat High Court.
Justice Vaibhavi D. Nanavati of the Gujarat High Court issued notices to Google India Pvt Limited, as well as the Central and State Governments, returnable on March 26. The notice was issued after Shukla approached the court seeking redressal for the prolonged blocking of his email account.
According to Shukla’s counsel, Dipen Desai, Google blocked Shukla’s account in April last year, citing violation of its policy on explicit child abuse due to the childhood photo uploaded by Shukla. Despite attempts to resolve the issue through Google’s grievance redressal mechanism, Shukla remained unable to access his email account.
Shukla highlighted the detrimental impact of the blocked email account on his business operations, emphasizing that he had approached both Gujarat police and the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology for assistance, but to no avail. Consequently, Shukla was compelled to seek judicial intervention to address the situation.
Given the urgency of the matter, Shukla requested an expedited hearing from the court, as Google had notified him that the data associated with his account would be deleted in April, a year after it was rendered inaccessible.
