The Karnataka High Court has recently issued a stay on a judgment delivered by a single judge bench imposing a monetary penalty of Rs 50 lakh on X Corp (formerly Twitter).
This action was taken based on allegations of non-compliance with directives from the IT Ministry.
However, this stay will remain in place if the corporation deposits either 50% of the stipulated sum or Rs 25 lakh within a week.
The high court stated, “As such, on deposit of ₹25 lakh, the order of the single judge bench is stayed until the next hearing date.”
The court underscored that the act of depositing the amount shouldn’t be considered an acceptance that Twitter has a case.
Previously, a single-judge bench determined that Twitter neglected to adhere to the IT ministry’s instructions for a span exceeding a year. Following this period of non-compliance, the company then approached the court against the orders. The government’s instructions sought the restriction of 1,474 accounts, 175 tweets, 256 URLs, and a singular hashtag on the Twitter platform.
The high court observed that Twitter took no action in response to the directives until the government proposed the imposition of a fine. It was only at this juncture that the company approached the high court.
As per the reports, “the court also noted that it was the company’s responsibility and not the government’s responsibility to show whether or not it had complied with the take down and blocking orders. Court also noted that it should have some regard for the law of the land.”
The legal representative for X Corp indicated that a communication gap arose due to the government’s blocking order coinciding with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the company had followed the government’s orders.
The case will next be heard on August 24.
