Plea to implead Twitter's Elon Musk filed before Delhi High Court
Nov 03, 2022
New Delhi [India], November 3 : A plea was moved before the Delhi High Court to implead Elon Musk as a respondent in an ongoing matter related to the suspension of the account of a woman user.
Musk took over Twitter last month.
The plea, moved on behalf of Dimple Kaul, has been listed for hearing before the bench of Justice Yashwant Varma tomorrow.
The plea moved through advocate Mukesh Sharma has sought an order allowing the present application by impleading Elon Musk as Respondent No.3 in the petition
The plea moved on behalf of Dimple Kaul stated that on October 27, 2022, Twitter Inc. has been moved into the private hands of Elon Musk. As of now, shares of the same are also not being traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
It is further submitted that Elon Musk has a very different stand on free speech whereby his opinion is that as long as the speech does not violate the law of the country in question, the same should not be curtailed by Twitter.
Tweets in this regard made from his verified Twitter handle have been annexed with the plea.
The plea provided the addresses where Elon Musk may be served a notice. As well Twitter handle @elonmusk be served with a copy of the petition on his address, and email ID as well as via Twitter handle and he is impleaded as a party to the petition so that his stand can be ascertained, the plea stated.
The Delhi High court on January 31, 2022, issued notice to Twitter on a petition of Dimple Kaul challenging the suspension of her account. She alleged that the account was suspended without giving any prior warning and any opportunity of being heard.
The Petition said that Twitter performs a public function and is bound by Section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000 and Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
It was further stated that the suspension is in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India as it affects the right to free speech.
A petition moved by Dimple Kaul said that her Twitter handle had more than 2,55,000 followers.
The Twitter handle was used for posting educational content related to different subjects including literature, women's rights, Indic culture, non-violence, equality, politics and history.
This petition is still pending before the High Court.
