Slowly, but surely: The five-hour and two-day long verdict

Even though it seemed a bit delayed, justice finally came today in the form of the Karnataka High Court order on maintainability of Twitter employee Manish Maheshwari's plea challenging the Uttar Pradesh Police's notice issued to him.

. After conducting hearings in the matter, Justice G Narendar had reserved the verdict on July 9. It was scheduled for pronouncement on July 13, but was deferred after the judge said that he wanted to go through the cited precedents once again so that there are no errors in the verdict.

And this meticulousness was reflected in how long the order took to pronounce.

. The pronouncement of the order on maintainability of the plea took over five hours, spread over two days.

. In its order, the Court sifted through various issues associated with the case - from the extent of control Twitter India exercised over content on the social media platform, to whether Maheshwari was a Managing Director of the company, to the UP Police's use of criminal law provisions.

. On the last aspect, the Court ultimately held that the conditions for invoking Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which deals with notice to appear before a police officer, were not fulfilled.

The Court went to the extent of stating that the notice was exercised in a mala fide manner, noting,

"Provisions of the statute cannot be permitted to become tools of harassment. Respondent (UP Police) has not placed even an iota of material to demonstrate even prima facie involvement of the petitioner (Maheshwari)."

.[BREAKING] Provisions cannot be permitted to become tools of harassment: Karnataka High Court says Manish Maheshwari plea is maintainable. As the matter took a substantial chunk of judicial time on Justice Narendra's board over the last two days, he was seen adjourning other matters to later dates.

. At one point during yesterday's hearing, it seemed that the judge himself was aware of how long the pronouncement was taking. Before adjourning the pronouncement into the second day, he had said,

"I will need rest for my vocal cords tomorrow."

. After the verdict was pronounced, Senior Advocate CV Nagesh , appearing for Maheshwari, thanked the judge for his time and patience. Nagesh also apologised for taking so much time of the Court. Justice Narendar replied,

"We are only doing our duty."

Slowly, but surely: The five-hour and two-day long verdict

Bar & Bench

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