Karnataka HC dismisses Twitter plea challenging blocking orders; imposes Rs 50 lakh fine

The Karnataka High Court also rejected the request of Twitter lawyers to stay the order.

Bengaluru (Karnataka): The Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed a plea by social media giant Twitter challenging blocking and take-down orders issued by the Centre. The High Court also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on Twitter and ordered it to pay to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority within 45 days.

Justice Krishna Deekshit in his order also said in case Twitter fails to pay the fine in the stipulated time, it will have to pay an additional Rs 5,000 per day. The court also rejected the request of lawyers of Twitter to stay the order.

The bench said in its order that the Central government has the authority to block Twitter accounts. Reading the operative portion, the High Court said, "In the above circumstances this petition being devoid of merits is liable to be dismissed with exemplary costs and accordingly it is. Petitioner is levied with an exemplary cost of Rs 50 lakh payable to the Karnataka State Legal Service Authority, Bengaluru, within 45 days. If delay is brooked, it attracts an additional levy of Rs 5,000 per day."

"I am convinced with the contention of the Centre that they have powers to block tweets and block accounts," the judge said while dismissing Twitter's petition.

The Ministry of Information and Technology had issued the orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. Twitter, in its petition, had, however, claimed that the orders "fall foul of Section 69A both substantially and procedurally." Twitter had further claimed that as per 69A, the account holders had to be informed about taking down their tweets and accounts, but no notice was issued by the Ministry to these account holders.

The Centre issued notices to the Compliance Officer of Twitter on June 4, 2022, and again on June 6, 2022, to appear before it and explain why the Blocking Orders were not carried out and why action should not be initiated against it. Twitter replied on June 9 that the content against which it had not followed the blocking orders does not seem to be a violation of Section 69A. On June 27, 2022, the Centre issued another notice stating Twitter was violating its directions. On June 29, 2022, Twitter replied asking the Government to reconsider the direction on the basis of the doctrine of proportionality.

On June 30, 2022, the Centre withdrew blocking orders on 10 account-level URLs but gave an additional list of 27 URLs to be blocked. On July one, 10 more accounts were blocked. Compiling the orders "under protest," Twitter approached the High Court with a petition challenging the orders.