The Petitioner Mr Hegde was a member of the social media and micro-blogging website, Twitter since July 2010. His account was permanently suspended on November 5, 2019. The Petitioner contends that the suspension is- Contrary to the ‘Twitter Rules’ and its terms of use and therefore illegal and arbitrary and violation of his right to free speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19 (1) (a). The Petitioner also challenged it on the ground of a violation of his right to assembly and right to form association guaranteed by Articles 19 (1) (b) and 19 (1) (c) of the Constitution.
The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain an application for an early hearing moved by advocate Sanjay Hegde in plea against suspension of his Twitter account, saying that it has more important matters to hear in the day. To the submission made by Hegde’s counsel that the advocate’s Twitter account remains suspended for the past two years, Justice Rekha Palli said, “It is not urgent, your client can do without Twitter.”
In December 2019, Hegde moved the high court challenging the permanent suspension of his account –“@sanjayuvacha”, from November 5, 2019 for allegedly re-tweeting two posts. The senior advocate, in his plea, alleged that the move was “arbitrary”, illegal as contrary to Twitter’s rules.
One of the posts was that of Kavita Krishnan, secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association and member of CPI(ML) politburo who had shared Gorakh Pandey’s poem “Unko phaansi de do” in 2019. Hegde had re-tweeted the post with the caption “Hang Him”, an English translation of the poem’s title, the plea read.
The second post was a picture of August Landmesser which Hegde was using as his profile header/ cover photo for over a year. was used as his profile header/cover photo for over a year. The photograph in question was taken on 13 June 1936 and shows a large gathering of workers at the Blohm Voss shipyard in Hamburg. Almost everyone in the image has raised his arm in the Nazi salute. The only exception is Landmesser, who stands toward the back of the crowd, with his arms crossed over his chest. The Petitioner’s account was suspended purportedly for the use of the aforesaid posts. He followed the internal appeals. However, his appeal was rejected. He was informed that his account had been permanently suspended on November 5, 2019.
