Delhi Cantt rape and murder: Delhi High Court notice to Twitter on plea seeking action against Rahul Gandhi

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to social media platform Twitter on a plea seeking action against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for disclosing sensitive information and publishing photos of the Delhi Cantonment rape victim's family on Twitter [Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar v. Rahul Gandhi].While categorically denying issuance of notice to Rahul Gandhi, a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh told Twitter to file it's response."You file your response. We'll see thereafter. Notice upon Respondent Number 4 (Twitter) only. The same stands returnable on November 30," the Court said. The matter pertained to a tweet posted by the Congress leader involving a photograph of him with the parents of a nine-year-old Dalit girl who was raped and killed at a crematorium in Delhi Cantonment area on August 1.The plea by advocate Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar sought directions for appropriate action to be taken against Gandhi by the Commissioner of Police and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for posting the tweet in question.Mhadlekar had argued in his petition that the tweet had violated Section 23(2) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2005, which prohibits disclosure of the identity of a victim of a crime.Appearing on behalf of Twitter, Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya submitted that the objectionable tweet was removed. "We had locked the account. Thereafter, the objectionable tweet was removed. Now the account is operational without the tweet," Poovayya said. He also informed the Court that the entity indicated in the cause title was wrong and the correct party was 'Twitter Inc' as opposed to 'Twitter India', which had been incorrectly impleaded. Advocate Gautam Jha who appeared on behalf of the petitioner, sought to place reliance on the Supreme Court's decision in Nipun Saxena vs Union of India which dealt with a similar issue of protecting the identity of rape victim.However, the Court was of the opinion that no notice will be issued to Rahul Gandhi. The matter will be taken up next on November 30..When the matter was heard in August, the Court had then noted that Gandhi's Twitter account had already been temporarily locked after the NCPCR had sent a notice to the platform seeking the removal of the tweet."If they are saying they have removed, they have removed. No need to explain further since Twitter has taken immediate action prior to the intervention of the Court," Chief Justice Patel had said.The Court had then made a conscious decision to not issue notice in the matter and posted the same for hearing on September 27.