The petition was filed by Khaja Aijazuddin, an advocate, who sought direction from the respondents and Twitter to stop the illegal trending under the name #Islamiccoronavirusji.
The Telangana High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Union Home Secretary in a contempt petition filed for alleged willful disobedience of its order. The court directed the Ministry to consider seeking FIR against social media users who are spreading communal hate speech in light of the increased Islamophobic tweets following the Prophet Muhammad row.
The notice was issued by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy.
The petition was filed by Khaja Aijazuddin, an advocate, who sought direction from the respondents and Twitter to stop the illegal trending under the name #Islamiccoronavirusji. Further, he sought registration of criminal cases against Twitter and social media users for spreading Islamophobia.
The bench after issuing notice to the Union Home Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Government of India for filing the Counter, has scheduled the next hearing on June 8.
In the petition, Aijazuddin also cited the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that recommended not attaching any religion to the spread of Covid, as that may further trigger Islamophobia.
However, in an earlier order of the High Court in May, the Union minister had replied that law enforcement agencies regularly monitored the social media platforms against the misuse of the social media platforms and take appropriate action. But in failure of any action and action by the respondent, pertaining to the previous order, the petitioner filed the contempt case alleging willful disobedience.