The Delhi High Court on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on former Central Bureau of Investigation chief M Nageswara Rao and also dismissed his plea against Twitter’s decision to remove the blue verification tick from his account, Live Law reported.
Justice Yashwant Varma said that there was no reason for filing the petition when a similar plea was already disposed by the court on April 7.
In March, Rao had moved the Delhi High Court after Twitter removed the blue verification tick from his account.
The court had given him the liberty to reapply for verification, The Indian Express reported. In his new petition, Rao said that despite reapplying for the verification tick, Twitter had not reinstated it.
Twitter’s action is “violative of various provisions of the Constitution as it is an impairment of the right to free speech”, he said.
Officers should be appointed within the ministry to address the complaints and grievances of social media users “so that the general public are not subjected to unnecessary harassment”, he added, Live Law reported.
The court, however, dismissed the petition saying Twitter should be given time to decide on Rao’s application for a verification tick.
This is not the first time that Rao has raised allegations against Twitter.
In September 2020, Rao had said that his freedom of expression and right to dissent were violated after Twitter deleted his post about the death of social reformer Agnivesh.
“You were an anti-Hindu donning saffron clothes,” Rao had tweeted. “You did enormous damage to Hinduism. I am ashamed that you were born as a Telugu Brahmin.”
Agnivesh died at a hospital in Delhi due to liver disease. He was 80 years old.
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