KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Thursday observed that social media is good in the hands of good and worthy, but for some, it is “an unrestrained playground of their vilest predilections”.
“It takes all kinds to make the world, including the ‘self-appointed crusaders’ with no cause. One can only leave them to their mischief and let them wait until the long arm of the law reaches them,” observed the court.
Justice Devan Ramachandran made the observation while dismissing the summons issued to a former judicial officer, S Sudeep, for making disrespectful comments on the orders of the judge on a petition filed by the former driver of alleged conman Monson Mavunkal.
The court observed, “Free speech is key to the internet and I am personally a strong votary of it. The power of expression is the most valuable and forceful facet of human existence but a few, as the individual we notice here, pushes this freedom to its extremes, unfortunately, goaded and encouraged by cyber ‘friends’ who by their ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ spur him on, but never to be part of the consequences which he will finally be pushed into. These are those who compel even right-thinking citizens to seek regulation of online space.”