HC asks Twitter user to apologise to AltNews founder Zubair

The Delhi high court on Thursday directed an 'X' user to apologise to AltNews co-founder Mohammad Zubair for his "offensive" comment against him on the social media platform.

Observing that people should be temperate on the social media and apologise if they get "carried away", Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani asked the user to publish his apology on his handle on 'X', formerly called 'Twitter', in one week while "giving context of the offensive tweet" and retain the post for two months.

The court, which was dealing with Zubair's petition to quash an FIR registered against him following his online spat with this social media user, noted that the user has expressed regret before the city police for calling the petitioner "offensive communal names" and claimed that there was no malice to hurt or offend Zubair.

"He has chosen the unfortunate words. Let him put it (apology) out on his Twitter handle...We want people to be temperate on social media and if you get carried away then first thing you have to do is at least apologise," Justice Bhambhani said.

"If he has expressed regret and said 'niyat nahi thi', let him atone for that," he added.

In 2020, the Delhi police had registered the FIR against Zubair for allegedly threatening and torturing a girl child on the social media platform after he responded to the Twitter user who was using a picture with his minor daughter as a display picture on the platform.

Zubair described the allegation levelled against him in the FIR as "an absolutely frivolous complaint". Subsequently, while the police closed the case against Zubair, the court directed the investigating agency to state what action it took against the Twitter user for his offensive tweet, which amounted to hate speech", against the journalist.

During the hearing, the counsel for the police said the investigating officer found "no real basis" to register a case against the user in light of his statement and has left the matter to court.

The user told the police in his statement that he has respect for all religions and he has good relations with members of all religious communities.

The court perused certain other posts made by the user and said "this type of person should be barred from social media".

It, however, considered his statement expressing regret made to the police and closed the proceedings in the case.

"When you make a mistake on a platform, you apologise on the platform. I am trying to put a Twitter war to end," the court stated, adding that "social media was an anarchic medium" and Zubair will not retweet the apology or use it to sue the user over the offensive tweet.

The high court had in September 2020 directed the Delhi police not to take any coercive steps against Zubair in the case. It had also directed Twitter India to cooperate with the police in the investigation of the matter.

The NCPCR has earlier contended before the high court that the submission of the city police that no cognisable offence was made out against Zubair was "incorrect" and that the agency's stand indicates the casual attitude of the authorities.