A defamation suit filed by an Australian man has landed internet giant Google in a big soup. The Australian High Court has ruled in favour of Milorad Trkulja saying that Google was wrong on its part to publish pictures of Trkulja linked to hardened criminals of Melbourne’s underworld while giving the go-ahead to Trkulja to sue the internet giant.

During the course of proceedings, Trkulja’s lawyer said that Google searches for “Melbourne criminal underworld photos” brings up images of Trkulja beside gangland figures.

Lawyers appearing for Google contested the argument saying that it would be illogical for somebody to presume photos in a Google image search for underworld figures are all of the criminals because the same search would also show up the images of crime victims, movie posters and photos of actor Marlon Brando.

The court observed while it was apparent that some of those pictured, for instance Brando, were not criminals, it could be deduced someone who was comparatively unheard of, such as Trkulja, could be linked with crime or the underworld.

—India Legal Bureau