New Delhi: The Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by Twitter Inc – challenging blocking and take-down orders issued by the Centre – and slapped a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the micro-blogging platform.
A single bench judge of Justice Krishna S. Dixit imposed the fine citing the platform’s conduct and also refused its request to put a stay on the order issued to it by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
The bench said: “Your client (Twitter) was given notices and your client did not comply… Punishment for non-compliance is seven years imprisonment and unlimited fine. That also did not deter your client. So you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay… then all of sudden you comply and approach the Court. You are not a farmer but a billion dollar company.”
The bench also refused to issue guidelines to the Centre, as sought by Advocate Manu Kulkarni for Twitter, over the exercise of its powers under Section 69A.
The court said: “In the above circumstances the petition being devoid of merits is liable to be dismissed with exemplary cost and accordingly is dismissed. Petitioner is levied with exemplary cost of Rs 50 lakh payable to the Karnataka State Legal services Authority, within 45 days and if delay is brooked it will attract an additional of Rs 5,000 per day.”
Twitter had argued that the blocking orders demonstrated “excessive use of power and are disproportionate”.
In June, 2021, MeiTY served Twitter a final notice to comply with the new information and technology rules, including a series of blocking orders, and warned that failure to adhere would lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act.
The government had said that Twitter’s refusal to comply demonstrated the microblogging site’s “lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform”.
“Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc has doggedly refused to create mechanism that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes, by India based, clearly identified resources,” the IT ministry had said.
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