Vice-president and MD of Facebook India, Ajit Mohan got some respite from the Supreme Court on Wednesday as the court asked a Delhi assembly panel to halt any coercive action against him till October 15.
A Delhi assembly panel had summoned Ajit Mohan, asking him to depose before it in regards to the Delhi riots in which more than 50 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
The assembly panel is probing Facebook's role in spread of alleged hate speech during the riots.
Hearing the matter, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari issued notices to the secretary of the Delhi Legislative Assembly; the ministries of Law and Justice, Home Affairs, Electronics and IT; Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, represented by the Secretary General, and Delhi Police, asking them to respond to the plea.
The Supreme Court's order came in response to a plea filed by Ajit Mohan and others challenging the September 10 and September 18 notices issued by Delhi Assembly's peace and harmony committee that sought his presence before the panel that is probing the Delhi riots and Facebook's role in spread of hate speech.
Meanwhile, the panel today said it will not hold further meetings in this case till the time the Supreme Court disposes this case.
Arguing for the Delhi assembly' Peace and Harmony Committee, which had summoned Ajit Mohan, senior Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the panel needs suggestions how misuse of Facebook can be stopped.
"Facebook has not been summoned as an accused but Facebook has been misused," he said.
In its latest notice (on September 20), the Peace and Harmony Committee sent its second notice to Facebook India vice-president and managing director Ajit Mohan to ensure his presence for deposing before the panel on September 23.
The panel in a statement warned that any defiance to the notice for appearance would be deemed to be an act of "breach of the constitutionally-guaranteed privileges" of the committee.
This was the final warning issued to Facbook India by the committee chaired by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Raghav Chadha as Ajit Mohan did not appear for his deposition during the last meeting of the panel.
Terming his non-appearance before the panel as a "contempt of the Delhi Legislative Assembly", Raghav Chadha had insisted that Facebook must honour the proceedings taking place under Delhi's state legislature in the same manner as they did for a parliamentary standing committee.
"Any rebuttal or disregard to this subsequent notice shall be deemed as a wilful act of breach of privilege and thus, shall entail various proceedings initiated against Facebook India," the statement said.
The committee had taken cognizance of the accusations against Facebook for its alleged "complicity" in the northeast Delhi riots of February on the premise of the "incriminatory material" produced on record by the witnesses as well as their depositions in its previous meetings.
The hearing by the Assembly panel started in the backdrop of a Wall Street Journal report that claimed that a senior Facebook India policy executive had intervened in internal communication to stop a permanent ban on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker from Telangana, after he allegedly shared communally-charged posts on the social media platform.
(With inputs from PTI)