Suspension of Senior Adv Sanjay Hegde's Twitter Account: Writ petition not maintainable, Twitter tells Delhi HC

Twitter Inc today told the Delhi High Court that the writ petition preferred against it by Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde in connection with the suspension of his Twitter account was not maintainable..Appearing for Twitter Inc, Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya thus sought time to file a brief note before the Court on that aspect first..Allowing the request, a Single Judge Bench directed Twitter Inc to submit its brief note within two weeks, on the point of jurisdiction of the Court to interfere in the matter under its writ power..Appearing for Hedge, Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta today also sought a direction to Twitter to not delete data pertaining to his account on the servers..In response, Poovayya stated he would need instructions on this point since it was a writ petition and not a suit. He nonetheless added that deleting date was in nobody's interest..The Court thus remarked, "If data is not deleted, advise them not to. I will not pass any order.".In response to Hegde's writ petition, Centre submitted earlier that the issue of suspension was between Hegde and Twitter..As far as the framing of appropriate guidelines is sought, Centre has claimed that it has fulfilled its statutory obligation by framing the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011..The Delhi High Court had issued notice in Hegde's plea in Janaury. The plea also calls for the issuance of guidelines to ensure that any censorship on social media is carried out strictly in accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of the Constitution of India..In October last year, Twitter had suspended Hegde's twitter account on finding that the use of an image of August Landmesser as his header image amounted to "hateful imagery" and violated the platform's terms of use. As pointed out by Hegde in his petition, the 1936 photograph showed Landmesser standing out in a gathering of workers for refusing to raise his arm in the Nazi salute..Appeals made by Hegde to Twitter challenging his suspension did not yield any positive response and on November 5, he was informed that his account had been permanently suspended..In his petition before the Delhi High Court, Hegde has argued that the suspension of his account is contrary to Twitter's rules and terms of use, and is therefore illegal and arbitrary. He has further argued that the suspension has violated his rights under Article 19 of the Constitution, including his right to free speech and expression, his right to assembly, and his right to form an association..Apart from Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal and Advocate Pranjal Kishore also represented Hegde..The matter would be heard next on March 27.