“No question of not complying with Rules,” Twitter tells Delhi HC

Twitter on Monday told Delhi High Court that it had already appointed a Resident Grievance Officer on May 28 and that there was “no question of not complying with the law or Rules”.

The High Court issued notices to Twitter and the Centre and gave three weeks time to the social media giant to file an affidavit to substantiate its assertions with regard to complying with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The case was listed for hearing on July 6.

Also see: Explained: Twitter, WhatsApp vs Govt of India

Issuing notices, Justice Rekha Palli observed that petitioner had sought directions to Twitter Communications India Pvt. Ltd and Twitter Inc, San Francisco, US to comply with the Rules, 2021.

“The grievance of the petition is towards non-appointment,” said Justice Palli. Before the Judge passed the order, the counsel for Twitter Inc, San Francisco, US, Sajan Poovayya, made an oral prayer for deletion of Twitter Communications India Pvt. Ltd as Respondent because the entity that would deal with the present matter is Twitter Inc, San Francisco, US. The Court noted the submission and issued notices to the Centre and Twitter Inc, San Francisco.

Addressing the Court, the counsel for Twitter said, “The Rules have been complied with. There is no question of Rules not being followed. A resident grievance officer has been appointed as of May 28, 2021,” said Sajan Poovayya,

At this juncture, the counsel for the petitioners interjected to say that although Twitter is saying that they have appointed an officer, it is not certain whether they have done it according to the law.

“That is why I am asking them to put in an affidavit,” said Justice Rekha Palli.

Also read: Petition filed in HC against Twitter for not complying with new IT guidelines

The petition was filed by Amit Acharya through his counsels Akash Vajpai and Manish Kumar against Union of India, Twitter Communications India Pvt. Ltd and Twitter Inc, San Francisco, US against non-compliance of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 by Twitter and sought an appropriate writ against both the Centre and the Twitter to perform their statutory and executive duties under the Rules.

According to the Rules 4C of the IT Rule, every Significant Social Media Intermediary has to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer who shall, subject to clause (b), be responsible for the functions referred to in sub-rule(2) of rule 3 which provides for the mechanism of the intermediary.

“The intermediary shall prominently publish on its website, mobile-based application or both, as the case may be, the name of the Grievance Officer and his contact details as well as mechanism by which a user or a victim may make complaint against violation of the provisions of this rule or any other matters pertaining to the computer resources made available by it,” says the rule.

The role of the Grievance Officer is to acknowledge a complaint within 24 hours and dispose it off within a period of 15 days from the date of its receipt. The rule prescribes that the Grievance Officer shall also receive and acknowledge any order, notice or direction issued by the Appropriate Government, any competent authority or a court of competent jurisdiction.

The petitioners had contended that the Rules had come into force from February 25, 2021 and the Centre had given three months time to the social media platforms to comply. The three months’ period expired on May 25 but Twitter had not complied with the Rules.