According to LiveLaw, Karnataka High Court has begun to hear the plea filed by Twitter Communications India Private’s Managing Direction (MD) Manish Maheshwari against the notice issued to him by the Uttar Pradesh Police under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Earlier, a single bench led by Justice G Narender had passed an interim order preventing the UP Police from taking coercive against Maheshwari. However, the interim order has been challenged by the UP Police in the Supreme Court.
He has told the Karnataka HC that he is ready to appear before police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad within 24 hours as long as they provide him an undertaking that he will not be arrested, NDTV reported.
The notice was issued over tweets written after the video of an elderly Muslim man being assaulted in Loni, Ghaziabad went viral. The MD, a Bengaluru resident was summoned to Uttar Pradesh for questioning over tweets about the Muslim man’s assault in Ghaziabad. He approached the Karnataka HC in June to challenge the summons while being granted temporary protection from arrest.
Advocate CV Nagesh has appeared for Manish Maheshwari. As per LiveLaw, he asked the court that if the respondent (UP Police) wants to know from the MD who is in charge of the company then “where is the question of issuing him a notice under Section 41A” to him. He emphasized, “The hidden agenda lies here.”
In addition, no complaint or crime had been registered by the UP Police against him. The council policemen don’t have the power to “name me as the person representing the company” under Section 305 (2) of CrPC, only the company can do that.
The HC asked the counsel for UP Police Mr. Prasanna the allegations against Twitter India while not bringing IT Rules alongside the basis of holding the company responsible.
It continued, “Don’t mix up Twitter India and Twitter INC. Have you (UP Police) even visited the office of Registrar of Companies?”
Karnataka High Court has said that there was no conclusion if Twitter India was an intermediary under the new IT Rules.
The hearing is set to continue tomorrow at 3:45 pm.
