[BREAKING] "Premature": Supreme Court refuses to quash issuance of summons by Delhi Assembly to Facebook's MD for probing into Delhi Riots case(s)

The Supreme Court on Thursday held that the Facebook MD, Ajit Mohan's plea challenging issuance of summons by the Delhi Assembly was premature.

The bench led by Justice SK Kaul stated that the formulation of the Assembly for probing into the Delhi Riots case and the issuance of summons thereto was no different from the State Assembly, and though the Assembly, admittedly does not have the power to legislate under the issues which fall under the domain of union govt, the objective of peace and harmony go beyond law and order and police.

At the same time, the bench has observed that the committee (formulated by the Assembly to look into the Delhi Riots of 2020) cannot don the role of a prosecuting agency and direct filing of supplementary chargesheet.

In this context, the Court has added that the Committee would be entitled to receive information in order to deliberate on the aspect of peace and harmony.

Court further delved upon the fast moving technology which has created digital platforms. "This often gets uncontrollable at times. One such creation is of intermediaries which states that they have no control over the content posts. By the reason of content, Facebook is one such platform," said the bench.

It has also been highlighted that any representative of the petitioner can deny answering any question by the committee if its falls within the prohibited domains.

The bench has stated that it has divided submissions under privilege, free speech and legislative competence and has comprehensively taken account of worldwide developments.

"Judgments should only be submitted when asked for"

The bench took note of the voluminous judgments which were handed over to the bench.

"We were laid down with judicial precedents of privy council & other courts. A lot of judgements were submitted before the court in spiral binding. Judgements should only be submitted when asked for," the Top Court said.

Court has mentioned that while the judgment was reserved three months ago, it was delivered today. It has pointed to a "postscript" on the deliverance of the judgment in wake of the ongoing pandemic.

[Judgment Copy awaited]

After the rounds of hearing(s) that lasted for almost 26 hours, the Court had reserved the matter for judgement on February 24, 2021.

The committee, which is headed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson and legislator Raghav Chadha, had issued a warning to Facebook India after Mohan failed to appear before the panel for its third hearing, despite having been summoned.

The same was thereafter challenged by M.D. & Vice President of Facebook India, Ajit Mohan's plea before the Supreme Court.

The committee had earlier said Facebook was in contempt of the Delhi assembly, and gave the social media company a “final warning” to heed the summons and appear before it, dismissing a letter sent by executives of the firm, declining to present themselves before the panel.

Case Title: Ajit Mohan and Ors v. Legislative Assembly, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Ors