Dismissing a petition that sought a direction to the Centre to take necessary steps to control, monitor, guide and form a panel of members to regulate social media platforms, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court observed that it was open to the petitioner to live in the stone age or to protect his family or his children from the advances of technology. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice R. Hemalatha dismissed the petition filed by S. Umamaheswaran.
The court observed that the petitioner sought the High Court to play the role of a conservative censor board to monitor and control the content of what was broadcast over the social media. Though specific complaints may be entertained, courts are not there to impose sanctions or guidelines on how the media or even social media operates and it is for the other agencies to do so, based on the policy decision taken by the legislature of the day or the executive arm, the judges said. “It would be open to the petitioner to propagate the kind of philosophy that he sought to espouse. He might approach the appropriate legislature or executive to effectuate his ideas,” the judges observed.
