New Delhi, May 13 -- The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice on a public interest litigation alleging that several mobile applications available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store are being used to circulate obscene and pornographic content and facilitate other alleged illegal activities.

A Division Bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia directed Google LLC, Apple Inc. and the concerned authorities to take appropriate action and file an action taken report before the next hearing in July.

The Court observed that intermediaries operating app stores have an important responsibility under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It said such...