NEW DELHI: After the Supreme Court on Thursday said that Delhi Assembly can seek information from Facebook and its officials over the role played by the social media platform in 2020 riots, the Chairman of Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee Raghav Chadha welcomed the judgment on Thursday saying it ‘reaffirms’ the powers and privileges of the committee.
Earlier, this committee had commenced hearings regarding the alleged role of social media giant during last year’s communal violence in northwest Delhi. The committee had issued the summons to Facebook India Vice President and MD Ajit Mohan for failing to appear before it as a witness.
“While dismissing the petition… the Supreme Court is pleased to recognise the privileges and power of the Delhi Legislative Assembly’s Committees is at par with Parliamentary privileges and those of other Legislative Assemblies” said Chadha in a statement.
“The Court has also reaffirmed that as part of these privileges the Committee of Peace and Harmony is entitled to summon ‘non-members’ to appear before itself in order to assist it in matters of governance that lie within its remit and terms of reference,” he added.
The basis of summons issued by the panel committee to Ajit Mohan, vice president and managing director, Facebook India, was that the committee “had received numerous complaints alleging inter alia intentional omission and deliberate inaction on the part of Facebook to apply hate speech rules and Polices which has allegedly led to serious repercussions and disruption of peace and harmony across the NCT of Delhi”.
“From the pronouncement, it is clear that the Court has reaffirmed and acknowledged the important role of the committee. We will study the judgment and shall thereafter continue the proceedings in terms thereof,” added the statement.