New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Monday barred Tripura police from acting on its report to Twitter Inc regarding a journalist’s tweet about alleged violence in the community in the state.
A bench of judges DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna has released the plea, labeling Samiullah Shabbir Khan’s plea with other pending cases.
The bank said: “Issuing notice. Pending further injunctions, there will be an ad-interim direction preventing the first defendant (Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime)) from acting on the November 22, 2021 notice regarding to the petitioner in these proceedings,” the bank said.
Attorney Sharukh Alam, appearing before Mr Khan, said the notice issued by the Chief Inspector of Police (Cyber Crime) of Tripura Police under Section 91 of CrpC to Twitter Inc provided the petitioner’s browsing history, his phone number and IP address, in addition to saving the tweet for investigation into the criminal case brought against the petitioner.
Mr Alam wanted to know that when writing about violence in the community amounted to contributing to the violence, arguing that the police report was an invasion of the petitioner’s privacy.
The bank registered Mr Alam’s submission that the petitioner had posted a tweet via his Twitter account referring to the violence and destruction of religious sites and tagging the Tripura police.
It noted that on November 22 last year, a communication was addressed by the Chief Inspector of Police (Cyber Crime) of Tripura Police to Twitter Inc advertising the FIR registered against various sections of IPC and UAPA.
The bank said the communication sought the removal of the contents of the said Twitter account, the links of which are provided and the preservation of the contents from October 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022, user details, browsing logs from October 1, 2021 to November 7 , 2021 and mobile number registered to the Twitter account.
“It is argued that writing about violence will certainly not attract any of the offenses referred to in the communication,” the bank noted in Mr Alam’s filing.
In his plea, Mr Khan said he received a message from Twitter informing him of the communications from the Tripura Police and the investigation that has been launched.
On November 17 last year, the highest court ordered the Tripura police not to take coercive measures against the three members of civil society, including a journalist, in connection with an FIR filed under the strict UAPA provisions against them for alleged facts via social media. reports of “targeted violence” against the minority community in the state.
The three individuals, who were part of a commission of inquiry, have also challenged the constitutional validity of some provisions of the 1967 Prevention of Illegal Activities Act, on the grounds that the definition of “unlawful activities” is vague and broad; moreover, the statute makes it very difficult to grant bail to suspects.
The FIR took note of a tweet from one of the civil society members who had stated that “Tripura is on fire”.
Last year, the northeastern state witnessed arson, looting and violence after reports came in from Bangladesh that the Hindu minorities there had been attacked during ‘Durga Puja’ on charges of blasphemy.