A bench of Justice Rekha Palli told Twitter's counsel that the US microblogging giant misled the court by failing to clarify the appointment of a resident grievance officer (RGO) was merely interim.
"If Twitter thinks that they can take as much time as it wants in our country, then I will not permit that", the bench told senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, representing the microblogging platform.
Twitter submitted that it was in the process of appointing the officer and informed that it had appointed an interim Grievance Officer earlier."But he resigned after three weeks, we didn't want to put his neck in this issue," it said.
The HC asked the social media firm to inform the bench by July 8 as to when it will appoint the RGO in compliance with the new IT Rules, stating "respond on compliance with IT Rules or You're in trouble."
The bench also sought information on Twitter's compliance with other provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) by the next date of hearing.The court will further hear the matter on July 8.
In its affidavit filed in the matter, the Centre had apprised that the San Fransico-based Twitter was not in compliance with the IT Rules, 2021 given the fact that the person appointed to deal with grievances that arise in India is residing in the United States.(UNI)
