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The Delhi High Court bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh has asked Twitter to remove certain objectionable material relating to Hindu Goddess Maa Kali from its platform, and observed that the social media giant shall respect the general public’s sentiments as it is doing business for them.

Aditya Singh Deshwal, the petitioner, said that he came across some highly obnoxious posts about Maa Kali put up by a user with the name @AtheistRepublic, adding the deity was represented in a disgraceful and outrageous manner.

Represented through Sr. Adv. Sanjay Poddar, the petitioner said he intimated Twitter’s Grievance Officer that the content put by the user was in grave contravention of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and non-compliance of the rules shall make the social media giant lose its legal immunity provided under the Information Technology Act.

Deshwal stated that other content tweeted by Atheist Republic also showed that it was a "deliberate attempt to wilfully outrage and hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus in order to promote religious animosity amongst the people of this country".

The bench noted that twitter is doing a good job and the public was happy, however, it stated,

"You should respect the sentiments of general public as you are doing business for public at large. Their sentiments shall be given due importance... Why should you do things like this? You should remove this."

Twitter was represented by Sr. Adv. Sidharth Luthra. The case related to social media posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram depicting the Hindu Goddess Maa Kali in an objectionable light. Facebook and Instagram had already removed the said posts earlier and informed court of the same.

The matter is posted for November 30.

Cause Title: Aditya Singh Deshwal vs Union of India & Ors.