Ina major setback for Twitter in India, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled upthe micro-blogging site for failing to appoint resident grievance officer(RGO), saying, "How long will your process take place? This cannot beallowed", even as the court free pass to the central government to actagainst the social media firm.
Abench of Justice Rekha Palli told Twitter's counsel, "Come up with a clearresponse, otherwise you will be in trouble", and sought information onTwitter's compliance with other provisions of the Information Technology(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules,2021) by the next date of hearing.
Thehigh court told central government counsel: "We are not stopping you fromtaking action, court has not granted any protection to Twitter. If they are inviolation, you know what to do."
TheCentre submitted that Twitter India is in clear violation of IT Rules,2021.
TheCentre had informed the Delhi High Court that Twitter has failed to comply withthe IT Rules, 2021 as on July 1, on four counts:
Chiefcompliance officer not being appointed;
Theposition of the resident grievance officer being vacant;
Theposition of the nodal contact person (even on an interim basis) being vacant;and
Thephysical contact address, which was shown to be there on May 29, was notavailable on Twitter's website.
Thecentral government counsel submitted before the court that Twitter was giventhree-month window to comply with IT Rules, but they did not.
Thecounsel added that they are most welcome to do business in India, but they haveto comply.
Thebench said, "I am not giving them any protection. I have already made itclear that they have to comply."
SeniorAdvocate Sajan Poovayya, representing Twitter India, submitted that an interimgrievance officer was appointed, but he had withdrawn his candidature on June21. The bench responded that after June 21, and till July 6, the least it couldhave done was appoint another person.
"Howlong does your process take? If Twitter thinks it can take as long it wants inour country, I will not allow that," said the bench.
Poovayyasought time to seek instructions on the new appointment, which was allowed bythe court, and it passed over the matter. Later, Poovayya submitted that heneeds more time to obtain detailed instructions from San Francisco-basedTwitter.
Thebench observed that these rules are binding but Twitter has not appointed anyonetill now. The court posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday, andasked Twitter to inform by when it will appoint an RGO and other officials.
OnMay 31, the Delhi High Court had issued a notice to the microblogging platformon a plea by advocate Amit Acharya.
Theplea had urged the high court to issue directions to the Centre to passnecessary instructions to Twitter India and Twitter Inc to appoint a residentgrievance officer under Rule 4 of the Information Technology (IntermediaryGuidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 without any delay.
Theplea had contended that in a nutshell, every significant social mediaintermediary has the responsibility of appointing not only a resident grievanceofficer who will act as a single-point authority for receiving and disposing ofcomplaints within a fixed time, but someone should also receive and acknowledgeany order, notice and direction issued by the competent authorities.