The High Court of Karnataka on Monday rejected an application filed by senior advocate Sanjay Hegde seeking intervention in the petition filed by Twitter Inc challenging Union government’s blocking orders.
The Supreme Court advocate sought to intervene in the matter stating that in a petition filed by him before the Delhi High court, Twitter has submitted a diametrically opposite view.
Appearing for Sanjay Hegde, senior advocate Aditya Sondhi submitted that the applicant had filed a petition against Twitter, which is expected to come up for hearing in December. He submitted that in this pending petition, Twitter has taken the diametrically opposite position. He also argued that the Union government has extensively referred to the pleading and which is likely to be made use of in the proceedings before the High Court of Karnataka. He said that any finding/observation by the High Court of Karnataka will have a bearing on the petition pending before the Delhi High Court.
However, Justice Krishna S Dixit declined to accept the contentions observing that the arguments advanced are on a feeble ground as well as unmeritorious. The court rejected the application citing apex court’s order in Razia Begum Case, wherein the principles have been laid down based on which proper and necessary parties can be permitted in a proceeding.
Meanwhile, the hearing on the petition continued with two senior advocates - Aravind Datar and Ashok Haranahalli - appearing on behalf of the petitioner Twitter. It was submitted that the blocking is tweet specific and not account general since section 69A of the Information Technology Act refers to information that is generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted. The hearing has been adjourned to October 27.
Twitter has challenged the series of blocking orders issued by the Union Government from February 2, 2021 till February 28, 2022. The orders issued by the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) had directed Twitter to block for access by the public certain information, which include suspension of multiple accounts on Twitter.