Headlines
HC seeks centre's response on usage of social media by ministries
New Delhi, Jan 30
The Delhi High Court Friday
sought an affidavit from the central government on a plea by former BJP
leader K.N. Govindacharya objecting to the government officially
allowing opening of Twitter and Facebook accounts by PMO and other
central government ministries in violation of the law.
A division
bench of justices B.D. Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva granted three-week's
time to the central government and asked it to file a response
"positively" on the issue and posted the matter for March 13.
Advocate
Virag Gupta, appearing for Govindacharya, raised the objection on the
use of Facebook and Twitter for the official purpose by several
ministries through private e-mail accounts, saying it violates the
Public Records Act as per which "no person shall take or cause to be
taken out of India any public records without the prior approval of the
central government".
The petitioner argued that servers of these
social networking sites are outside India so the nation's official data
is transferred to other countries.
During the hearing, Additional
Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the centre, said the
government had called a meeting of social media companies Jan 23 and
issue being examined and sought more time to file response.
The court Sep 11 asked the central government to file response on the issue which it failed.
Gupta
told the court that "19 ministries are officially on Twitter, five
ministries opened their Facebook accounts from private e-mail ids. The
prime minister is on Twitter and Facebook. Most of the ministers have
their Twitter accounts."