The Maharashtra state government yesterday (December 17) told the Bombay high court that a petition seeking suspension or permanent deactivation of Kangana Ranaut’s Twitter account was vague and not maintainable. State prosecutor J.P. Yagnik said that the petition against Twitter, filed by Bombay lawyer A.K. Deshmukh should be dismissed.
The court asked Deshmukh what his locus standi was. He replied that Kangana’s tweets were against a community, which went against Twitter’s policy and guidelines on posts to prevent misuse of violation of laws of the land. His petition sought the high court’s intervention under section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to stop alleged hate spread and commission of crime in the country. The bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and M.S. Karnik asked if the petition was in the form of a PIL. Deshmukh said that it wasn’t since there was no requirement for a PIL as the tweets were not only affecting the public but also personally affecting him as he practised the faith she was targeting in her tweets.
The high court posted the petition for hearing next on December 21.