Delhi High Court Allows Ed-Tech Platforms to Publish University Rankings Based on Public Data

The Delhi High Court has ruled that ed-tech platforms can rank universities based on information that is already available in the public domain, as long as the content is not presented in a defamatory or disparaging manner.

The decision came in a case titled M/s Getmyuni Education Services Private Limited Vs Mangalayatan University, where Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri granted relief to Getmyuni Education Services.

What Was the Dispute About?

Two universities — Mangalayatan University and Usha Martin University — had approached a Dwarka court in Delhi. They sought an order restraining Getmyuni from displaying information and rankings about them on its website.

The universities argued that the rankings shown on the platform were incorrect and harmed their reputation. In March 2023, the lower court passed interim injunction orders directing Getmyuni to remove the content related to these institutions.

Getmyuni then challenged this order before the Delhi High Court.

What Did Getmyuni Argue?

Getmyuni stated that it is an education-technology platform that provides information about universities and prepares college rankings to help students make informed decisions about higher education.

The company clarified that:

• It does not falsely represent itself as being associated with any university.
• The rankings displayed are based on publicly available sources such as the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), ‘The Week’, and ‘India Today’ magazine.
• The information is presented with proper references and without any negative commentary.

High Court’s Observations

The High Court found that Getmyuni had not altered the rankings or added its own editorial remarks criticising the universities.

The Court observed that:

• There was no evidence that Getmyuni had manipulated NIRF rankings.
• The platform had not made any independent comments on the quality of education or services offered by the universities.
• The rankings were clearly sourced from publicly available material.

The Court rejected the universities’ argument that simply displaying rankings amounted to disparagement. It noted that when rankings are based on open-source, publicly available data, they cannot automatically be considered harmful to reputation.

Importantly, the universities had also not alleged any misuse of their intellectual property.

Final Decision

The Delhi High Court set aside the injunction orders passed by the lower court. It held that an ed-tech platform has the right to use publicly available information about universities, provided that it is not presented in a misleading or defamatory manner.