Delhi HC Fines Former CBI Chief M Nageswara Rao Rs 10,000 Over Twitter Blue Tick Row

Ex-interim Director of CBI M Nageswara Rao was fined Rs 10,000, and the court said Twitter must be recognised to have at least taken a reasonable time to decide on the representation.

New Delhi: Former interim Director of CBI M Nageswara Rao was imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 by the Delhi High Court on Tuesday after he challenged Twitter’s action of removing his verification tag, the blue tick, according to PTI. Justice Yashwant Varma noted that on April 7 a similar plea was disposed of by the court and he was given liberty to reapply for the verification tag and to pursue appropriate remedies in case any adverse decision is made by Twitter.

The bench came down heavily on the petitioner during the course of the hearing.

"We passed an order on 7 April. What has constrained you to approach the court immediately? Your client seems to have a lot of free time. Do you want a return gift from us," the bench remarked according to IANS. 

"This court takes note that there was absolutely no justification which warranted the writ petition to be filed bearing in mind that the earlier writ petition was disposed of on April 7,'' the court was quoted by PTI.

Rao's plea said that in pursuance of the court's order, he reapplied for the blue tick, however, the Verification Tag attached to his Twitter handle was not re-instated to date after which he filed the fresh petition.

The court said Twitter must be recognised to have at least taken a reasonable time to decide on the representation.

"The petition is thus dismissed with Rs 10,000 costs," the court said.

Rao, a retired IPS officer, said his account on Twitter did contain a blue tick but the same was removed in March 2022.

In his plea, he had also sought directions to the Centre to designate or earmark one or more Compliance and Grievance officers within the Ministry exclusively to handle grievances or complaints from users of Social Media platforms like Twitter, FB, Instagram, etc relating to compliance to the law and rules including verification of user identity so that general public is not subjected to unnecessary harassment.

The 1986-batch IPS officer of Odisha cadre, who retired in August 2020, is known for his 'viral tweets' on the social media platform.