Delhi High Court Issues Summons In Abhijit Iyer Mitra's Suit Seeking Restoration Of 'Suspended' Twitter Account

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued summons in the suit filed by Abhijit Iyer Mitra, who is a research fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, seeking restoration of his Twitter account and action against the micro-blogging site for "suspending" his account "without following the procedure prescribed by law".

Justice Mini Pushkarna has now listed the matter before joint registrar on December 12 for completion of pleadings.

Advocate Raghav Awasthi appearing for Mitra took the court through the facts of the case and argued that his access to the Twitter account has been curtailed without following the provisions of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

On the other hand, Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya appearing for Twitter prayed for filing a short response to the suit, arguing that the case has been filed after a period of three months. He also submitted that Mitra's account has been put on a "read only mode" which can be restored as and when the tweet goes.

"Issue summons. Summons are accepted by counsel appearing for the defendants. Senior counsel for defendant no. 1 submits that in the memo of parties, defendant no. 1 is shown as Twitter Communications India Private Limited. He submits that defendant no. 1 ought to be Twitter INC only. Direction is issued to counsel for the plaintiff to file amended memo of parties showing defendant no. 1 as Twitter INC. List before joint registrar for marking of exhibits on December 12," the court said, while dictating the order.

Mitra's access to his Twitter account was blocked in July by the social media site in connection with a tweet he had posted in context of the bail order of Alt News Co Founder Mohd Zubair. Mitra had named a journalist who "furnished bail bond" for Zubair at the time of bail.

Iyer had initially posted a tweet containing private information. Subsequently, he had posted another tweet wherein he wrote, "reposting minus the 'private info'. I'm sure twitter will find some way of protecting its resident in-house jihadist his aiders abettors"

Soon, according to the suit, Twitter issued him a show cause notice and then "unilaterally" banned his access. On his appeal, Twitter confirmed that a violation "did take place" and refused to overturn its decision.

Mitra's suit therefore seeks "reinstatement" of his Twitter account.

Mitra has also sought a declaration to the effect that deletion of the tweet dated July 23 by Twitter and "consequent suspension" of his account was in violation of the IT Rules, 2021.

In the tweet, Mitra had also written: "…presiding judges son on NDTV, NDTV editor furnishes bail bond of "close friend."