Account Restored: Delhi HC Closes Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde’s Plea Seeking Restoration Of Twitter Account
The Delhi High Court closed the plea of Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde seeking restoration of his ‘X’ [erstwhile Twitter] account in light of the fact that his account was restored.
It was brought to the High Court’s notice that his prayer for issuance of guidelines to ensure that any censorship on social media is carried out strictly in accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of the Constitution had also become infructuous since the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 had been framed in February 2021.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju held, “...the Writ Petition is disposed of with the directions that no action shall be taken against the Petitioner by the Respondent No. 2, except in accordance with the law and applicable statutory rules and guidelines.”
Advocate Pranjal Kishore represented the Petitioner while Central Government Standing Counsel Amit Tiwari represented the Respondent.
The Court was informed about the fact that ‘X’ [erstwhile Twitter] account of the Petitioner was suspended for the use of a famous anti-nazi picture on his profile, albeit without any prior notice or objection.
The Petitioner submitted that it was only pursuant to the filing of the present Writ Petition, that the ‘X’ account of the Petitioner was restored. However, it was averred that even today the same picture that was used by the Petitioner earlier, was reflected on the account of the Petitioner. Hegde’s twitter account was reinstated on January 9, 2023.
The Petitioner, in his petition, had also prayed for issuance of an appropriate Writ or Direction in the nature of Mandamus directing Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to lay down guidelines in exercise of its powers under Section 79 (2) (c) read with Section 87 (2) (zg) of the Information Technology Act to ensure that any censorship on social media is carried out strictly in accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of the Constitution. It was further contended by the second Respondent that the same had also become infructuous since the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 had been framed in February 2021.
One of the main concerns of the petitioner was that since there was no explanation for why the account was suspended and later restored, there was no assurance that the account would not be suspended again for the same reason.
In view of such circumstances, the Bench disposed of the Writ Petition with the direction that no action shall be taken against the Petitioner by the Respondent No. 2, except in accordance with the law and applicable statutory rules and guidelines”, the Bench said.
The Bench concluded the matter by saying, “All pending Applications stand closed.”
Cause Title: Sanjay R Hegde v. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:9664)
Appearance:
Petitioner: Advocates Pranjal Kishore & Madiya Mushtaq
Respondents: CGSC Amit Tiwari, Advocates Ankit Parhar & Abishek Kumar