Delhi High Court Waives Cost Imposed On Former CBI Head M Nageswara Rao While Dismissing His Plea Against Removal Of Twitter Verification Tag

The Delhi High Court on Thursday waived off the cost of Rs. 25,000 imposed on former Central Bureau of Investigation head and Retired IPS Officer M. Nageswara Rao while dismissing his plea against the decision of microblogging website Twitter to remove his verification tag, also known as blue tick, from his account.

Justice Yashwant Varma deleted the cost imposed on May 17 in view of the unconditional apology tendered on behalf of Rao.

"Bearing in mind the unconditional apology which is tendered on behalf of the petitioner, the cost in terms of the order dated 17 May, 2022 shall stand deleted," the Court ordered.

Rao's counsel argued before the Court thus:

"My lords had imposed a cost of Rs. 25,000 on the petitioner. He was just asking for his identity to be secured, I am not on merits. My only grievance is I am a pensioner."

While dismissing the plea, the Court was of the view that a similar plea with identical prayers was disposed of by the Court vide order dated April 7, 2022, by giving liberty to Rao to re-apply for verification.

Rao had moved to the High Court submitting that his account on Twitter did contain a blue tick, but the same was removed in March 2022.

The plea, which has been dismissed, also sought directions on Centre to designate or earmark one or more Compliance and Grievance officers within the Ministry exclusively to handle grievances or complaints from users of Social Media platforms like Twitter, FB, Instagram etc relating to compliance to the law and rules including verification of user identity so that general public are not subjected to unnecessary harassment.

Case Title: M. Nageswara Rao v. Union of India and Anr.