Delhi High Court Tuesday imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on former CBI interim director and retired IPS officer M Nageswara Rao in connection with his petition against Twitter’s decision to withdraw the blue verification tick from his account.
Justice Yashwant Varma said there was “absolutely no justification” which warranted filing of the petition when a similar plea was disposed of by the court on April 7. The court last month had granted Rao the liberty to reapply for the verification, and on Tuesday questioned why he had approached the court so soon thereafter.
“The court further provides that it shall be open to the petitioner to pursue appropriate remedies as may be available in law in case he faces any adverse decision made by the private respondent,” Justice Varma had said in the order passed last month.
Seeking restoration of the verification badge on Twitter, Rao in his fresh petition said that the action of Twitter is violative of various provisions of the Constitution “as it is an impairment of the right to free speech”.
“The petitioner in compliance with this Hon’ble Court’s aforesaid order reapplied for the verification tag. However, as expected, [Twitter] has not reinstated the verification tag attached to his Twitter handle till date,” Rao’s counsel said in the petition.
Rao, whose bluetick was allegedly removed in March, in his petition also argued that Twitter performs “a public function” and qualifies as a ‘State’ for the purposes of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. Writs can be issued to it under Article 226 of the constitution, it was contended.
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