K'taka HC stays Rs 50 lakh fine on X Corp, subject to company depositing 50% of amount within a week
Bengaluru, Aug 10: A division bench of the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday stayed a single judge bench order that had imposed a cost of Rs 50 lakh on X Corp (formerly Twitter) for not complying with IT Ministry orders -- subject to the company depositing 50 per cent of the amount (Rs 25 lakh) within one week.
The deposit is for X Corp to show its bonafides, the court said. The order of the single judge who had directed X Corp to deposit Rs 50 lakh by August 14 will be stayed till the next date of hearing.
"As such, on deposit of Rs 25 lakh, the order of the single judge bench is stayed until the next hearing date," the HC said.
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice MGS Kamal was hearing a petition by the micro-blogging site against the order of Justice Krishna S Dixit which had dismissed its petition challenging the take-down orders on tweets (posts), URLs and hashtags. The single judge bench had also imposed a cost on the company in its judgment on June 30.
On Thursday, the division bench in its interim order said, "We direct the appellant to deposit Rs 25 lakh within one week in this court."
The court however said that deposing the money "may not be treated as acceptance by this court that equity lies in favour of the appellant."
The single judge had held that the company did not comply with the orders of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) for more than a year and then approached the HC against those orders.
MeiTY had under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act between February 2, 2021 and February 28, 2022 issued 10 Government orders directing it to block 1,474 accounts, 175 Tweets, 256 URLs and one hashtag. X Corp (then Twitter) challenged the orders related to 39 of these URLs.
On Thursday, X Corp was represented by advocate Manu Kulkarni while the Central Government Counsel Kumar M N argued on behalf of MeiTY. The Government counsel argued that the case itself was not maintainable.
However, the division bench pointed out that the single judge bench had upheld the locus standi of X Corp to file the petition challenging the blocking of tweets and handles of its users.
Comparing X Corp to a shop selling various products, the HC observed that it was akin to taking action against the shopkeeper if there were substandard products on sale. After granting the temporary relief in the interim order, the division bench adjourned the hearing of the appeal by two weeks.
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
