BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court will pass its order on July 13 on the petition filed by Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari seeking to quash the June 21 notice issued by the Uttar Pradesh police under Section 14-A of the CrPC in connection with a video uploaded allegedly to promote communal disharmony. Justice G Narendar said that he will dictate the order on Tuesday, after the arguments of the petitioner and the UP police concluded on Friday.
Advocate P Prasanna Kumar, representing the UP police, argued that the petitioner was required to appear before the police for questioning and not before this court, which is not the territorial jurisdiction, as he claims to be the “country leader at Twitter” on various social platforms, including LinkedIn.
Kumar contended that the notice was issued to the petitioner in his capacity as MD of Twitter India and not as an individual. “The petitioner can’t play hide and seek when he has declared himself ‘country leader at Twitter’ and his registered office is in Mumbai. He has to appear before the police who have ample powers to question any person under Section 160 of the CrPC. Moreover, he has to approach the High Court in UP and not in Karnataka, which is not the territorial jurisdiction where the crime was registered,” he argued.
Before this, senior advocate C V Nagesh, representing the petitioner, argued that the notice issued to the petitioner lacks “sanction of law” and indicates that it is “an act of intimidation”. Vindictive action has been taken against the petitioner and his fundamental rights has been violated, he argued.
He said that the petitioner was ready to appear before the police virtually. “Nothing prevented the police from questioning him virtually, but they did not do so even 10 days after this court passed the order to question him virtually, while restraining them from taking any coercive action. Is it their ego? Why do they not want to question him through video conference?” Nagesh said while reiterating that this court has jurisdiction to entertain the petition.
HC directs State, BBMP to look into immunisation for kids of labourers
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the State government and the BBMP to look into the issue of regular immunisation for children of migrant and construction workers. A special division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order after going through the report of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA), which indicates that such children are more vulnerable to health issues during the pandemic because they are deprived of vaccines like BCG.