Karnataka High Court dismisses Twitter’s plea, imposes fine of 50 lakhs

Bengaluru (IANS). The Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed Twitter’s plea challenging the blocking orders issued by the central government and also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the microblogging platform.

The court said that there is no merit in Twitter’s petition.

A bench headed by Justice Krishna S Dixit also ruled that Rs 50 lakh would be paid by Twitter to the Karnataka Legal Services Authority over a period of 45 days. The bench said Rs 5,000 will be paid for every additional day the payment is delayed.

The bench said, “Twitter has not given any reason for not complying with the demand of the Central Government for blocking. Twitter is not a farmer or a common man but a billionaire company.”

Dismissing the petition, the bench said it was convinced by the arguments of the Union of India. The bench also said that it referred to US, Australian and Canadian laws, English decisions and Supreme Court decisions on the wider implications of the tweet.

The Karnataka High Court on Friday pronounced the order on Twitter’s plea challenging the blocking orders issued by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the ground that account-level blocking violates user rights.

Twitter, in its plea, had said that the blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the IT Act were showing disproportionate use of powers.

The micro-blogging platform argued that MeitY had warned of dire consequences for non-compliance of the blocking orders.

The notice also warned of criminal proceedings and said that this would be the last chance to comply with the orders to block the accounts.

The Karnataka High Court had issued notice to the ruling Modi-led government at the Center regarding the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issuing orders to block around 1,100 Twitter accounts.

A single bench headed by Justice Krishna S Dixit passed the order after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Twitter, submitted that if the blocking order continues, Twitter’s entire business will stop. As per the rules, the reason for blocking the accounts has to be given to the micro blogging platform, which is not being done.