The Narendra Modi government has told the Karnataka High Court that the review committee orders detailing its decisions to block accounts on X between 2021 and 2022 need not be accessed by the social media platform, Bar and Bench reported.    

Additional solicitor general Arvind Kamath, who represented the government, told a bench of Justices V Kameswar Rao and Rajesh Rai Kallangala that X did not need to know the reason for the government’s directives because it is an intermediary and not the owner of the removed content or blocked accounts.  

Kamath also questioned X’s right to hold a grievance against the centre’s order. “Why does the appellant need to see the review file? He is only an intermediary. What is his grievance if some accounts are blocked? These accounts were asked to be blocked because, at that time, several fake tweets were being posted from certain neighbouring countries.” 

Meanwhile, X argued that it was liable to face penal action if it failed to comply with the centre’s directives, and so it had the right to ask for the reasons behind these orders.

Representing the social media platform, advocate Sajan Poovayya said, “I have the locus to tap the writ jurisdiction of this court. If an order is passed on me to take down tweets by whoever is the author, I need to know the reasons because there is a consequence in the law. If I don't take it down, I face seven years’ imprisonment.”

The court will now hear the matter on November 12.

Background

Amid the farmers’ protest in 2021, the central government had issued a string of urgent blocking orders against social media accounts and links related to the farmer protests to maintain “public order”. 

X challenged the centre’s orders. It said that account-level blocking is a disproportionate measure and violates the rights of users. Out of a total of 1,474 accounts and 175 tweets that were blocked, it challenged the blocking of 39 URLs. The petition said that the orders are arbitrary, and procedurally and substantively not in adherence with Section 69A of the IT Act. 

However, X’s petition was dismissed by a single judge bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit in June this year. The court also imposed a cost of Rs 50 lakh on the social media platform, saying that the blocking orders were a matter of state policy. 

The court agreed with the government’s decision to not give a notice to X users in cases of those “who intended to destabilise India”.

In August, X challenged the order before a division bench of the High Court, which stayed the order and directed X to deposit Rs 25 lakh to show its bona fides.

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