The Supreme Court Wednesday directed a Delhi Legislative Assembly panel not to take coercive action against Facebook India VP and MD Ajit Mohan till October 15 in connection with a summon asking him to depose before it with regard to north east Delhi riots.
Delhi Assembly’’s peace and harmony committee had issued a notice to Facebook India vice president and managing director in connection with complaints accusing the social media giant of deliberately not taking action to curb hateful content on its platform.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari issued notices to the secretary of the Legislative Assembly, the ministries of Law and Justice, Home Affairs, Electronics and IT, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, represented by the Secretary General, and Delhi Police, asking them to respond to the plea.
The apex court’’s order came on the plea filed by Mohan, Facebook India Online Services Pvt. Ltd and Facebook, Inc, which contended that the committee lacks the power to summon or hold petitioners in breach of its privileges for failing to appear and it was exceeding its constitutional limits.
They challenged the September 10 and 18 notices issued by the committee that sought Mohan’’s presence before the panel which is probing the Delhi riots in February and FB’’s role in spread of alleged hate speeches.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Mohan, submitted that committee cannot decide the breach of privilege of the house and administrative control over social media is with the Central Government.
“Privilege is something to be decided by the Assembly. A committee cannot decide whether action on privilege can be taken or not,” Salve said adding that the Delhi Government could not put Mohan “in the pain of punishment” by asking him to appear before the Committee.