SC dismisses plea of senior advocate Hegde seeking transfer of case from Delhi HC
Suspension of Twitter account
New Delhi(PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea by senior advocate Sanjay Hegde seeking transfer of his case, challenging the permanent suspension of his Twitter account for allegedly re-tweeting two posts, from the Delhi High Court to the top court.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and Hima Kohli also declined to interfere with his second plea against Karnataka High Court dismissing his plea seeking intervention in the petition filed by Twitter Inc challenging a series of blocking orders issued by the Centre.
"No case for transfer of cases is made out...Transfer petition stands dismissed. We are of the opinion that let there be one decision by one high court so that in future, this court would have advantage of at least one HC judgement," the bench said. The senior lawyer had approached the Delhi High Court in 2019 seeking directions to the Centre to lay down guidelines under the Information Technology (IT) Act to ensure that censorship on social media is carried out as per the Constitution.
He had filed the plea as his account on Twitter was permanently suspended by the social media company on November 5, 2019, allegedly in connection with two re-tweets by him, and sought restoration of his Twitter account.
The petition had said that before coming to court Hegde had followed the internal appeals procedure of Twitter, but his appeal was rejected.
He had also served a legal notice on the social media platform, but no response was received to the same, it said. In its note, Twitter had contended that suspension of Hegde's account was a contractual dispute and there was no positive obligation on it to provide its service.
The Delhi High Court is currently seized of Hegde's case and is likely hear the matter on December 19.
The Karnataka High Court had October 17, 2022 rejected Hegde's plea seeking intervention in a case filed by microblogging site Twitter.
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Maharashtra sets up state vaccination task force to strengthen immunisation programme
Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra government has set up a State Vaccination Task Force to strengthen the regular immunisation programme and review the progress of related campaigns, a health department official said on Monday.
The State Vaccination Task Force will comprise at least 29 members and will be headed by the administrative head of the health department, he informed.
The government has also constituted separate district-level and municipal vaccination task forces to improve implementation and address challenges at the grassroots level, he said.
Municipal task forces, chaired by respective civic commissioners, have been constituted in view of the vast urban population in Maharashtra and the role of civic bodies in implementing different health programmes.
The district-level task forces will function under the chairmanship of collectors.
"Complete immunisation of children at the appropriate age is an extremely simple, cost-effective and highly effective measure to reduce child mortality and the prevalence of diseases among kids. Immunisation is a powerful tool for reducing illness in children," maintained the official.
To ensure full vaccination of all children, the state government implements various campaigns from time to time as per the central government guidelines, he pointed out.
"Active participation and cooperation of other relevant government departments are essential (in making these campaigns successful)," according to the official.
The state-level body will review the regular immunisation programme, associated campaigns and vaccine-preventable diseases in detail. It will also conduct focused assessments of high-risk districts and municipal corporations, including vacancies at district, municipal and sub-district levels, availability of cold chain equipment, resource gaps and training requirements, he noted.
The state task force will review allocation and utilisation of funds for immunisation and ensure timely action by officers concerned based on reports from district and municipal task forces and state-level monitoring mechanisms, the official said.
It will also ensure active coordination and participation of other government departments in immunisation drives, while district and municipal task forces will carry out similar functions at their respective levels, the official added.
