The Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed the early listing of Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde's petition challenging the suspension of his Twitter account (Sanjay R Hegde vs UOI) .As per Justice Prathiba M Singh's order, the petition will be listed for hearing on July 8..Hearing in the petition was otherwise being deferred due to en bloc adjournment of cases in view of COVID-19 pandemic. .In his early hearing application, Hegde said that the matter raised important issues with respect to the contours of free speech and ability of private parties to limit it. .It also said that during the pendency of the petition, thousands of accounts were blocked by Twitter, including Hegde's own account. .Request for early hearing was not opposed by Twitter. The Court also granted time to Twitter to file its note on point of maintainability as directed perilously. .The Court had issued notice in Hegde's plea in January 2020. .The plea also called 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 2019, 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. Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta and Advocate Pranjal Kishore represented Hegde. Advocate Sajan Poovayya appeared for Twitter.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed the early listing of Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde's petition challenging the suspension of his Twitter account (Sanjay R Hegde vs UOI) .As per Justice Prathiba M Singh's order, the petition will be listed for hearing on July 8..Hearing in the petition was otherwise being deferred due to en bloc adjournment of cases in view of COVID-19 pandemic. .In his early hearing application, Hegde said that the matter raised important issues with respect to the contours of free speech and ability of private parties to limit it. .It also said that during the pendency of the petition, thousands of accounts were blocked by Twitter, including Hegde's own account. .Request for early hearing was not opposed by Twitter. The Court also granted time to Twitter to file its note on point of maintainability as directed perilously. .The Court had issued notice in Hegde's plea in January 2020. .The plea also called 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 2019, 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. Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta and Advocate Pranjal Kishore represented Hegde. Advocate Sajan Poovayya appeared for Twitter.
