Does the High Court of Karnataka have the jurisdiction to consider legality of the notice issued by Loni Border police in Uttar Pradesh to Manish Maheshwari, managing director of Twitter Communications India Pvt. Ltd., in the controversial Ghaziabad video case?
Arguments on this question of law took the centre stage on Friday before a Bench of Justice G. Narendar, who is hearing Mr. Maheshwari’s plea against a notice issued by the U.P. police on June 21 asking him to appear for questioning as a representative of Twitter India.
Senior Advocate C.V. Nagesh had vehemently contended that High Court of Karnataka was well within in its jurisdiction to deal with the petition as not only Mr. Maheshwari was a resident of Bengaluru but even Twitter India had its “office” in Bengaluru.
However, P. Prasanna Kumar, advocate for the U.P police, had contended that the place of residence of Mr. Maheshwari and the place where he carries on business, cannot and would not amount to “cause of action” within the meaning of Section 20(c) Civil Procedure Code, and thus, the present petition was beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the High Court Karnataka under the Article 226(2) of the Constitution.
On the petitioner’s claim that “cause of action” to move the High Court in Karnataka as he had opened the police notice, sent through e-mail, sitting at an office of Twitter in Bengaluru, the U.P police have said that even as per documents produced by him the “registered” office of Twitter is at Mumbai, which is address the police mentioned in the email.
Pointing out that Twitter had only an office for maintaining its books of accounts and papers in Bengaluru as per company data, the U.P. police claimed Bengaluru office cannot be considered as “place of business” even under the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, as the “registered office” is at Mumbai.
Pointing out that Twitter Inc holds 99% shares in Twitter India, Mr. Kumar said the investigation was essential to question even on his claim that he was not the managing director to represent Twitter India even though he has described himself as the “head of Twitter India” on various social media platforms.
After conclusion of the arguments on both the sides, the Bench indicated that it would dictate orders on July 13.