The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued summonses to the editors who added an allegedly defamatory description of Asian News International to the news agency’s Wikipedia page, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice Subramonium Prasad issued the directive after taking into account an earlier order pronounced by a division bench of the court, which allowed Wikipedia to serve summonses to the editors without publicly disclosing their identity.

Wikipedia is a free online collaborative encyclopaedia edited by volunteers. It is hosted by the United States-based non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.

The summonses on Thursday were issued as part of a defamation case filed by ANI seeking the removal of the description from its Wikipedia page. The description says that the news agency has been criticised for serving as a “propaganda tool” of the current Union government.

During the proceedings, the court threatened to order the Union government to block Wikipedia in India if the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the website, did not provide details about those responsible for adding the description to ANI’s page.

On October 28, the Wikimedia Foundation told the court that it was ready to share basic subscriber information about its users who edited the page and also volunteered to serve the summonses to them.

On Thursday, advocate Sidhant Kumar, representing ANI, told Prasad about the developments that had taken place before the division bench, according to Bar and Bench.

Subsequently, the judge ordered the High Court Registry to comply with the mandate of the consent terms recorded in it.

“Let summons be issued to defendants 2-4,” he ordered. “The summons can be served through all permissible modes...including email addresses to be supplied by the defendant 1 [Wikipedia].”

Wikipedia’s counsel told the court that the data about the users would be submitted in a sealed cover, meaning their identities would not be made public. As per the order, Wikipedia will have to serve the summonses in four days. The matter was listed for further hearing on December 16.

While it is unclear what details will be shared with the court in a sealed cover, basic subscriber information typically refers to a user’s name, address, email address, phone number and other identifiers.

In July, the court summoned Wikipedia and ordered it to disclose information about its editors. However, ANI complained to a single-judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla that Wikipedia had refused to comply with the order.

Chawla had taken strong objection to Wikipedia’s conduct and issued a notice for contempt of court. He also ordered a representative of Wikipedia to be personally present in court on October 25.

This was challenged before a division bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, after which Wikipedia told the court on October 28 that it was ready to share the information.

Also read: A Delhi High Court case could end up threatening how Wikipedia works in India