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Katju’s Twitter account suspended. The ex-SC judge requests it to be restored in letter to Elon Musk

Markandey Katju is an outspoken commentator on social media. He has said his account was 'suddenly suspended'. Twitter support has responded that the account will remain so.

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New Delhi: Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju Friday shared an open letter to Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk, seeking clarity after his account on the microblogging site was suspended.

Justice Katju claimed in the letter, the link to which he posted on his official Faebook page, that his Twitter handle, @mkatju, had been “suddenly suspended without giving any reason”.  The first time Twitter users noticed his account was suspended was on 18 May.

He further revealed that he had emailed Twitter Support with a request to restore his account, to which Twitter had asked for the reason behind his request, before revealing a connection between the suspension and a previous case involving Katju’s tweets. Twitter in its response said he had violated the platform’s Terms of Service.

Screenshot of Markandey Katju’s suspended Twitter handle
Screenshot of Markandey Katju’s suspended Twitter handle

Sharing his full email conversation with Twitter Support for clarity on the blogging platform Writers’ Cafeteria Friday, the former SC judge speculated in a follow-up email that the reason for the suspension may be related to his recent tweets criticising the Pakistan government led by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition.

“My guess is, it is because I have made some tweets adverse to the ruling PDM government in Pakistan, including its leaders Maryam Nawaz Sharif, a leader of Pakistan’s political party the PMLN, and her father former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, both of whom have been convicted by the Pakistan Supreme Court for huge corruption. If that is the reason, I would like to say that there is strong evidence about her wrongdoings,” Katju wrote in one of his emails to Twitter Support, including media reports to support his point. 

In the email thread, he also expressed his apologies to Twitter repeatedly for “having violated the platform’s terms of service”, if that were the case. However, Twitter Support responded that Justice Katju’s account would remain suspended, the blog post said. 

In the blog post, Justice Katju reiterated his “hunch” that his open support for former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and labelling of the PDM coalition government as “a gang of dacoits” were the causes of his account’s suspension.


Also Read: Twitter says users will be able to appeal account suspension under new guidelines


Past instances

Friday’s suspension is far from the first time Justice Katju has been embroiled in controversy on social media, either for his views on societal and political issues or for making remarks towards women that have been called out as “lecherous” and “objectifying”.

As far back as 2015, Twitter cache reveals that Justice Katju does not view his conduct as misogynistic, as he is simply an “old man” admiring a “beautiful woman”. 

“By admiring a beautiful flower I am not plucking it, and by admiring a beautiful garden from a distance, I am not tresspassing [sic] onto it. Similarly, if I admire a beautiful woman, I am not misbehaving with her, or taking liberties with her,” Justice Katju had said in a brief blog post at the time. 

The former Supreme Court judge had received criticism back then from the likes of Supreme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy, who in her Twitter post had said “an apology is required” for reducing “senior politician” Shazia Ilmi to her looks. 

Ilmi had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party eight months after quitting AAP at the time, after which Justice Katju had posted a series of tweets calling her “beautiful”.

(Edited by Richa Mishra)


Also Read: Twitter blocks Pakistan govt’s account for viewing in India, as per legal demand


 

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