Karnataka HC dismisses Twitter's plea with Rs 50L cost

The Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by Twitter challenging blocking orders issued by the Central government and also imposed a cost of Rs 50 lakh on the microblogging platform.

The court ruled that Twitter's petition was devoid of merit.

The bench headed by Justice Krishna S. Dixit also ruled that exemplary costs of Rs 50 lakh be paid by Twitter in a span of 45 days to the Karnataka Legal Services Authority. Rs 5,000 to be paid for every additional day if any delay in payment, the bench stated.

"Twitter has not given reasons for not complying with the central government's demands for blocking. Twitter is not a farmer or ordinary person but it is a billionaire company," the bench said.

While dismissing the petition, the bench stated that it is convinced by the Union of India's submissions. The bench also stated that it referred to laws in America, Australia and Canada, English judgments and Supreme Court judgments on the cascading effects of the tweets.

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

Twitter had submitted in its petition that blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) under IT Act are demonstrating excessive use of powers and disproportionate.

The micro blogging platform contended that MeiTY had served a notice warning of serious consequences of non-compliance of blocking orders.

The notice has also warned of criminal proceedings and stated that it would be a lost opportunity to comply with orders of blocking accounts.

The Karnataka High Court had issued a notice to the ruling Modi-led government at the Center in connection with issuing blocking orders of nearly 1,100 Twitter accounts by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The single division bench headed by Justice Krishna S. Dixit gave the order after the arguments by senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Twitter, explained that if the blocking order continues the whole business of Twitter will close. For the accounts to be blocked, as per rules reasons have to be recorded and given to the micro blogging platform which is not being done.