SC refuses to entertain plea for linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN, Voter ID

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea challenging a Delhi High Court order in which it had declined to direct linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID card for weeding out fake accounts.

A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao, however granted liberty to lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay to implead himself as a party in the transfer petition moved by the Centre in the apex court.

The lawyer, who argued the case through video-conferencing, said that the Centre had earlier sought transfer of similar cases from some High Courts to the apex court.

“We see no reason to interfere with the impugned order of the High Court. The Special Leave Petition is, accordingly,dismissed. However, liberty is granted to the petitioner (Upadhyay) to file impleadment application in Transfer Case …,” said the bench which also comprised Justices Krishna Murari and S Ravindra Bhat.

The Delhi High Court had earlier declined to order linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID card for weeding out fake accounts, saying it would lead to data of genuine account holders, who are much more in number, going "unnecessarily" to foreign countries.

It had said that linking of accounts with social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, with Aadhaar, PAN or any other identity document requires framing of policies or amendment in existing laws by the central government and this exercise cannot be done by the court.

Upadhyay, in the plea, has said that 20 per cent of the social media accounts were "fake, ghost or duplicate".

The plea said something has to be done as anyone can create a fake account on social media of any person, including the judges, and through that medium wrong or controversial information can be spread.

He had also alleged in his petition that fake social media accounts are used to propagate "fake and paid news" during elections.