Karnataka High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the ruling BJP government at the Centre in connection with the order asking to block 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 microblogging platform which is not being done.
The petitioner (Twitter) is answerable to account holders for blocking their accounts, he submitted.
The bench posted the matter for hearing on August 25, and assured to consider the plea by the counsel of the central government to make the hearing in-camera.
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 microblogging platform contended that, MeiTY has served a notice warning 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 if not complied with the orders of blocking accounts.