The matter was listed before a division bench of the high court presided by Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan who recused themselves from hearing the matter and directed the same to be listed before another division bench on September 30.

 

The plea filed by one Sangeeta Sharma also sought the court's directions to the Centre, Ministry of Law and Justice, IT Ministry and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to formulate a mechanism to check contents and advertisements which are spreading anti-national agenda, hatred among communities, and are seditious, instigative, separatist, hate-filled, divisive, against the society at large and against the spirit of the nation.

 

The petitioner in her plea filed through advocates Desh Ratan Nigam and Awanish Sinha stated that the present petition is filed for benefit of Indian citizens and since these persons are too numerous and have no personal interest in the matter, they are unlikely to approach this the court on this issue.

 

"The brazen attack on sovereignty and integrity of India on Twitter platform is to the detriment of the citizens as a whole. Hence the present PIL," the plea said.

 

The plea has contended that some "promoted handles" on Twitter's platform were being allegedly used for promoting an agenda for a separate Khalistan.

 

The plea further alleged, "the Respondent No 5 (Twitter India) deliberately and knowingly in order to create rift in the society deliberately promoted the prohibited content of the SFJ."

 

"In the absence of any law to deal with offensive and hate messages, platforms like Twitter are knowingly promoting the messages which are against the law of the land and therefore, the Respondent No 5 (Twitter India) needs to explain on circulating and promoting the prohibited content on their company Twitter," the plea said.

 

The plea has also sought an enquiry by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for fair, proper and speedy investigation as many of the users who promote messages in relating to Khalistan are from outside India and therefore can only be investigated by the National Investigation Agency.