On Friday, the Telangana High Court directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to publish the ‘Action Taken Report’ against the social media users who post ‘inflammatory’ posts against Islam. The Court stated that the MHA shall submit the report within three weeks and reveal its action against such social media users.
According to reports, the Court was hearing a contempt case filed by a practicing lawyer Khaja Aijazuddin who had claimed that Twitter users were deliberately spreading hate against one particular community since the pandemic.
Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy issued a notice to the MHA and asked the government to file a counter affidavit in the matter within three weeks. The bench said that the matter further would be heard on October 21 of this year.
Earlier in June, the Court had issued notice to the Union Home Secretary seeking to file criminal cases against all such Twitter users who allegedly spread communally charged hate messages through the micro-blogging site. This is after the petitioner argued that Twitter posts spread using hashtags ‘Islamic coronavirus jihad’, ‘Corona jihad’, ‘Tablighi Jamat’ or ‘Islamophobic’ posts during the pandemic had hurt the feelings of one particular community under the Indian penal Code and other relevant laws.
The Petitioner had also cited the WHO who had clearly stated during the COVID spread that the ‘name of any religion should not be attached with the pandemic’. Reports mention that the alleged inflammatory posts trending on Twitter had the possibility of disturbing the communal harmony of India for which the petitioner sought immediate intervention from the Court.
The case dates back to the year 2020 when a Hyderabad-based lawyer Khaja Aijazuddin filed a PIL seeking action against Twitter for allegedly spreading hate against one community during a pandemic. Apart from Twitter, Union Cabinet Secretary, Union Home Secretary, DGP, Telangana State, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City were made respondents.
Petitioner lawyer Khaja Aijazuddin stated that the social media posts since the pandemic were deliberately targeted at one particular community and that they were disturbing the communal harmony in India. Aijazuddin had then asked the court to register criminal cases against Twitter and the users who are allegedly spreading hatred messages under the IPC and IT Act.