Twitter Account Suspension: Delhi HC Fines Petitioner For Seeking Impleadment Of Elon Musk

The court said "even we need entertainment" and asked the counsel for the petitioner if he was serious in prosecuting the application.

The application said that Musk has a very different approach to free speech and, therefore, his views were important to be heard.

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The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed with Rs 25,000 costs a plea seeking to implead Twitter's new owner Elon Musk as party to a petition challenging suspension of a user's account for an alleged violation of its rules. Justice Yashwant Varma termed the application to be "thoroughly misconceived". "This application is thoroughly misconceived. It cannot possibly be disputed that a corporate entity is thoroughly represented and therefore, there was no need to file such an application. Accordingly, it is dismissed with a costs of Rs 25,000," the judge said. 

At the outset, the court said "even we need entertainment" and asked the counsel for the petitioner if he was serious in prosecuting the application.

To this, advocate Raghav Awasthi, appearing for the petitioner, said his instructions were to press the application.

He said Musk was not only the director but also holds substantial shares in Twitter and was a necessary party in the matter.

The application said that Musk has a very different approach to free speech and, therefore, his views were important to be heard.

The high court was hearing a petition by Dimple Kaul, who claimed that her Twitter handle had more than 2,55,000 followers and was used to post educational content in relation to history, literature, politics, archaeology, Indic culture, non-violence, equality, women's rights etc. 

Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter over Musk's decision to execute mass layoffs at the company that starts today (Friday, November 4). A lawsuit was filed at a San Fransisco federal court against Twitter as the company plans to cut as many as 3,700 jobs under Musk, which workers say the company is doing without enough notice in violation of California and federal law.

Twitter will tell employees by email on Friday about whether they have been laid off, temporarily closing its offices and preventing staff access, following a week of uncertainty about Twitter's future under the new boss, according to a report by news agency Reuters. 

(With inputs from PTI)