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The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday hit out on Uttar Pradesh Police for urging the production of Twitter Managaing Director Manish Maheshwari for investigation in the FIR related to Ghaziabad video, without doing proper homework in the concerned matter.

The Single Judge Bench of Justice G Narendar today while hearing the plea, observed

“What is the allegation against Twitter India? How does the complainant connect to Twitter India? Don’t bring in IT rules now as they don’t apply here.”

The Counsel representing UP Police, Kumar submitted that,

“The UP police is not after the petitioner. We only want the petitioner to disclose as to who is the person in-charge of the Twitter Company in India. If this was disclosed beforehand, none of this would happen.”

He further contended that,

“Maheshwari claims to be Managing Director, so we issued notice to him. They claim that petition is filed in Bengaluru because petitioner is a resident of Bengaluru but he has satisfy this court under Art 226(2). Neither whole nor part of cause of action arises in jurisdiction of this High Court.”

Advocate Nagesh appearing for the petitioner rebutted and stated,

"For a moment, it is not disputed that I am a resident of Bangalore. It is also not disputed that the establishment of ninth accused (Twitter India) is in Bangalore. We are not in Ghaziabad. Twitter India office is at RMZ Infinity, Bangalore. So jurisdiction is of Karnataka High Court."

Nagesh then submitted that UP Police did not have jurisdiction to issue notice to Maheshwari under Section 160 CrPC, while, maintaining that Twitter India does not control data of Twitter users.

"Interaction is between user and Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, USA. Therefore, I would not be in a position to provide information," it was submitted.

Despite this fact, Nagesh told the Court, Maheshwari was willing to co-operate over video conference.

"But still they do not want me to appear on video, probably with some ulterior motive. In the next 24 hours, I am ready to appear on video or physically. But they must give an undertaking to this Court that they will not lay a hand upon me," he said.

In any case, the provisions of the Information Technology Act would not apply to Twitter India, which he claimed was not an intermediary as defined under the Act.

The matter will be heard again on Wednesday.

It must be noted that the Ghaziabad police had summoned Mr Maheshwari for questioning under Section 41A of CrPC and had been given seven days to appear before the police and record his statement.

Previously, single judge bench of Justice G Narendar on June 24 had granted interim stay against notice issued by Uttar Pradesh Police to Twitter India’s employee Manish Maheshwari under Section 41A of CrPC. The court had however given liberty to the Police to investigate the petitioner through virtual mode.

Background-

An FIR had been filed against Alt News Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair, Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, the Wire & congress leaders Shama Mohammed, Salam Nizami & Maskoor Usmani at 11:20 PM on June 15, 2021 at PS Loni Border under sections 153 (provoking riots), 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups), 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 505 (statements inducing public mischief) & 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy).

Twitter Inc. & Twitter Communications Pvt. Ltd. were also named in the FIR for failing to take down/flag the tweets.

The Government of Uttar Pradesh has filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the order of the Karnataka High Court which had granted Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari protection from coercive action till the next date of hearing in the High Court.

Yesterday Maheshwari had filed a Caveat in the Supreme Court amidst reports that Ghaziabad Police will move Supreme Court challenging the High Court order.

Also, an FIR was filed against Manish Maheshwari at Bulandshahr in the wee hours of the night for the distorted and incorrect representation of the Indian Flag on its website, ANI reported. The managing director has been booked under Section 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 74 of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008. The complaint has been filed by a Bajrang Dal Leader.

Recently, the Bombay High Court bench of Justice PD Naik had granted transit bail of 4 weeks to Rana Ayyub, one of the accused named in the FIR.

Case Title: Manish Maheshwari v. State of UP| WP No 11028| 2021