BOMBAY HC AT GOA DISMISSED A WRIT PETITION FILED BY SANATAN SANSTHA CHALLENGING FACEBOOK'S ACTION OF BLOCKING ITS PAGES

The Bombay HC at Goa dismissed a writ petition filed by a Public Charitable Trust Sanatan Sanstha under article 226 of the Constitution challenging Facebook's action of blocking the pages created by the Sanstha.

The court ruled that blocking and unblocking of pages between the petitioner and respondent is purely a contractual dispute. It appears to be governed by a contractual relationship between the parties, and therefore the proceeding cannot be adjudicated under article 226 of the constitution.

The Sanstha pleaded in their petition that they created the pages several years ago to spread awareness and spirituality. The Sanstha sought orders directing the Central Government to make sure that Facebook unblocks the blocked pages of the Sanstha. Further, MEITY to establish to regulate social media platforms and penal action against Facebook.

The bench of Justices MS Sonak and MS Jawalkar submitted that seeking directions to MEITY and Facebook under article 226 is not maintainable and hence should approach the appropriate forum in case of any breach of contract.

Author: Papiha Ghoshal