The Supreme court today reserved its judgement on Facebook India Vice President Ajit Mohan’s petition, challenging the issuance of summons against him by a committee of Delhi Assembly in connection with the Delhi riots.
Few weeks ago, the Delhi Assembly had submitted that the social media giant Facebook does not have the right to approach the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution, challenging the notice issued to the company in connection with an inquiry into the communal violence in the Capital last year. It said, "Facebook is a corporation and Article 32 does not give companies the right to move the court."
On February 4, the Delhi Assembly panel had issued a fresh notice to Facebook India asking a “senior competent person” to appear and testify before its Peace and Harmony Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the communal violence that hit the Capital in February last year. As per a report, the notice was submitted at the Supreme Court, which was hearing a petition filed by Facebook India’s Vice President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan, against summons issued to him by the committee.
In the case so far, the Peace and Harmony Committee had asked Mohan to to appear for questioning on September 23 last year (2020) – a second round of summons – over allegations that the social media giant’s laxity in applying hate speech rules and policies contributed to the February 2020 violence. At least 53 people were killed and scores injured in the violence that rocked North East Delhi.
A communal violence had broken out where clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
