Maharashtra Government Resists Plea Seeking Removal Of Kangana's Twitter Account

The Maharashtra government on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that a petition which seeks that Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut’s Twitter account be permanently suspended was not acceptable.

Government lawyer YP Yagnik said that the relief sought by petitioner Ali Kaashif Deshmukh were "vague". He further added that the plea should be dismissed on the grounds of its vague nature.

Deshmukh went on to cite several tweets by Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel which instigated communal hatred and distaste against the state authorities. The tweets cited included the one which led to the suspension of Rangoli Chandel's Twitter account by Twitter India for attacking a community through a Twitter post, and also the one in which Kangana compared Mumbai to “Pak-occupied- Kashmir”.

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On Thursday Deshmukh argued his case before a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik. He said that in the past he had written to the police and Maharashtra authorities against Ranaut and Chandel.

When the bench asked Deshmukh whether his plea was Public Interest Litigation (PIL), he refused it to be one. In response to his refusal of the plea being a PIL, the bench said, “Then how can we act in a criminal case on the basis of claims made by a third party, who is in no way affected personally? Is this a PIL? If not, then you will have to show personal injury to you, how it is affecting you.”

Further, the government lawyer Yagnik argued that the plea did not present how the tweets flagged by the petitioner affected the public at large. He said, "This is a very vague petition. Twitter is an international body. One can not seek vague reliefs like these. This plea is not maintainable and should be disposed of," the Indian Express reported.