Delhi: The Delhi High Court, on Tuesday, declined to grant any interim relief to a senior army officer, who has challenged the Indian Army's recent mandate of banning army personnel from using social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others.
The Court said the petitioner has to either abide by the order of the organisation, or put in his papers and leave the job. The High Court pointed out that he had a choice to make and asked him to delete his Facebook account considering the ban on the use of social networking platforms. The court added that the rule was made keeping in mind the nation's security. It also said he can create a new social media account later on.
As quoted by NDTV, the bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon said that it has not found a valid reason yet to entertain the plea, "the question of granting any interim relief does not even arise especially when the matter is concerning the safety and security of the nation."
Lieutenant Colonel P K Choudhary contended that once deleted, all the data, contacts, and friends in his Facebook account would be "permanently lost" and the loss would be "irreversible".
To which the bench said, "No. No. Sorry. You please delete it. You can always create a new one. It cannot work like this. You are part of an organisation. You have to abide by its directive," as reported by NDTV.
It further added, "If you are so dear to Facebook, then put in your papers. See you have to make a choice; what do you want to do. You have other choices for yourself which are also irreversible."
The army officer had sought an interim relief that he be allowed to retain his Facebook account in a deactivated form, till the next date of hearing. As the court would actually make a decision on whether to entertain his petition or not.
According to a new policy announced on 6th of June, all Indian Army personnel have been ordered to delete their personal accounts from Facebook and Instagram and 87 other similar applications. The direction for the army officer who has raised the petition said that the only choice he has is either to face action from the department for not deleting the account or delete his Facebook account.
The officer's lawyer frequently urged the bench to allow him to retain the account in a deactivated form, adding that forcing him to delete the account, and the data in it, is a violation of his right to privacy.
The Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, told the court that the policy decision was taken as "we found that Facebook was a bug. It was infiltrating as a cyber-warfare and there were so many instances of personnel being targeted through the application".
ASG Sharma also said the petitioner's grievance was that he needs Facebook to communicate with his family in the US, when there were other modes of communication like WhatsApp, Twitter, and Skype which were still available to him as the army had not scraped off these social media platforms from being used by the Indian Army personnel.
After hearing him for some time, the bench asked the ASG to file the policy document in a sealed cover for perusal by the bench and said the reasons for taking the decision be also filed in it. With the direction, the court listed the matter for hearing on July 21.
The petition has alleged that the current policy which bans social media platforms is illegal, arbitrary, and disproportionate and it also violates the fundamental rights of the soldiers.
