The Delhi High Court Tuesday closed proceedings in a petition alleging non-compliance of new IT Rules by Twitter, saying that nothing remained in view of India’s federal government being satisfied with the micro-blogging platform appointing a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) and Nodal Contact Person.

Justice Rekha Palli further noted that Twitter has already dealt with the complaint raised by the petitioner — lawyer Amit Acharya — with regards to certain objectionable tweets and thus the petition has become infructuous, PTI reported from New Delhi.

While disposing of the petition, the judge also clarified that the petitioner was free to take appropriate legal recourse against the action taken by Twitter on his complaint against the allegedly objectionable tweets.

“Respondent No. 1 (the federal government) has filed an affidavit categorically stating that Respondent No 2 (Twitter) is fully complying with the IT Rules. In view of the aforesaid, which is not denied by the petitioner, nothing further survives,” the court said.

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, notified earlier in February, seeks to regulate dissemination and publication of content in cyberspace, including social media platforms.

Last month, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) had told the court that Twitter has appointed CCO, RGO, and Nodal Contact Person in compliance with the new IT Rules.

In its affidavit, the Centre stated that Twitter has clearly acknowledged that the personnel (CCO, Nodal Contact Person, and RGO) are appointed as the company’s employees and not as ‘contingent workers’.

On July 28, the court had expressed displeasure over Twitter appointing a contingent worker as CCO and said that the social media platform was in non-compliance with the new IT Rules.

In his petition, the petitioner-lawyer had claimed that he came to know about the alleged non-compliance of IT Rules by Twitter when he tried to lodge a complaint against a couple of tweets.

He submitted that when the new IT Rules took effect from February 25, the government had given three months to every social media intermediary, including Twitter, to comply with them.

However, in spite of the three-month period getting over on May 25, no resident grievance officer was appointed by Twitter to deal with complaints regarding tweets on its platform, it was contended.

The petition thus sought a direction to Twitter to appoint a resident grievance officer without further delay as well as a direction to the government to ensure that the IT rules are complied with.