NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde on Monday approached the Delhi High Court challenging the suspension of his Twitter account. Hegde called for the issuance of guidelines to ensure that any censorship on social media is carried out strictly with the provisions of Article 19 enshrined in the Constitution.
Hegde’s Twitter account was suspended on October 26, this year, due to his usage of an image of August Landmesser as his header image. The image violated Twitter’s terms of use as it amounted as ‘hateful imagery’.
Hegde’s account was restored the following day briefly, but was suspended again on October 28, this time because he had retweeted a 2017 tweet by CPI-ML member, Kavita Krishnan which comprised a poem written by Gorakh Pandey against the death penalty, titled “Unko phaansi de do.”
Appeals made by Hegde to Twitter, challenging his suspension did not yield any positive response and on November 5, Hegde was informed that his account had been permanently suspended and would not be restored.
On November 7, Hegde sent a legal notice to Twitter over the suspension. On November 12, he was informed again that his account would not be restored.
Hedge in his plea contended that the suspension had violated his rights under Article 19 of the Constitution.
Hegde has also urged that guidelines be issued to curb unconstitutional censorship on social media and ensure that any censorship on the same is in line with Article 19.