Bharat Jodo Yatra: Karnataka HC stays order directing Twitter to block Congress

• Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi appearing for Congress assured the bench that the alleged post was inadvertent and that there is no commercial purpose in using the audio clip.
• The bench orally remarked, according to Live Law that once the mistake is admitted, where is the question of investigation into it?
• Bengaluru court passed a direction to microblogging site Twitter to temporarily block the handles of the Congress and its Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday set aside an order of a commercial court that had directed Twitter to temporarily block twitter handles of Congress party and its mass movement, Bharat Jodo Yatra in a copyright infringement suit.

Bengaluru court passed a direction to microblogging site Twitter to temporarily block the handles of the Congress and its Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign for allegedly infringing its copyright by “illegal” use of KGF chapter-2’s music in the videos uploaded by it on Twitter.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi appearing for Congress submitted that there was no urgent reason to pass the interim order, adding that the party’s twitter handle cannot be taken off, according to Live Law. He assured the bench that the alleged post was inadvertent and that there is no commercial purpose in using the audio clip. Singhvi added that a disproportionate order could not be passed by blocking the national party accounts as affect its freedom of expression, especially when the Bharat Jodo Yatra is going.

The bench orally remarked, according to Live Law that once the mistake is admitted, where is the question of investigation into it? “If you have filed an FIR, where is the question of appointing a technical expert as commissioner? You want the Commissioner to do Police’s job?, said the court.

In the order, the court directed Twitter to take down three links from the two handles and further ordered it to block the Twitter handles of the Congress and Bharat Jodo Yatra, according to India Today.

“We have read on social media about an adverse order from a Bengaluru court against INC & BJY SM handles. We were neither made aware of nor present at court proceedings. No copy of the order has been received. We are pursuing all the legal remedies at our disposal,” the Congress said in a tweet.