Bengaluru: Twitter India Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari on Thursday claimed in the Karnataka High Court that it is an independent entity as its parent company Twitter Inc does not have any stake in it.
A petition by Maheshwari challenging the notice issued by the Uttar Pradesh Police was presented during the hearing by a single judge bench as part of its probe into a communally sensitive video uploaded by a user on the Twitter platform. Personal presence was demanded.
Justice G Narendra’s order is expected to be pronounced on Friday.
As Justice Narendra wanted to know whether US-headquartered Twitter Inc. can be called a parent company, Maheshwari’s counsel CV Nagesh said, “Twitter Inc. is a parent company.
We have nothing to do with this (Twitter Inc.).
It (Twitter India) is an independent organization and an independent institution.”
When the judge asked about the promoters and shareholding pattern of Twitter India, Nagesh said that Twitter India is only an affiliated company of Twitter Inc.
The judge then pointed out that there is no such thing as an affiliated company.
In general terms, it is called sister company or associate on the basis of shareholding and memorandum of association.
To this Nagesh said, “Let me go on record that Twitter USA (Inc) does not have a single share in Twitter India. That’s why I’m saying it’s a completely different entity.”
Ghaziabad Police’s counsel P Prasanna Kumar said Twitter Inc “will face the consequences of saying they don’t know who Twitter India is”.
“I direct that 99 per cent of the company’s shares are held by Twitter Inc.,” Kumar said.
“All the associates of the petitioner till date have been representing Twitter India and Twitter Inc before the Central Government agencies,” Kumar said.
He argued that “unless Twitter India officials were interconnected”, the board of Twitter Inc. would not have authorized its Twitter India employees to represent them to central government agencies.
Justice Narendra said that the board of directors can authorize anyone.
During the debate, Nagesh on Friday offered to keep a memo on record that Twitter USA is not even a shareholder.
Elaborating on the share holding pattern, he said, Twitter International Company, which is headquartered in Ireland, has 9,999 shares, while Twitter Netherlands holds one share.
However, it is Twitter Inc. that runs the platform.
The Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) police had on June 21 issued a notice under Section 41-A of CrPC asking Maheshwari to report at Loni Border Police Station at 10:30 am on June 24.
He then moved the Karnataka High Court as he resides in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
On June 24, the High Court in an interim order restrained the Ghaziabad Police from initiating any coercive action against him.
Justice Narendra had also said that if the police wanted to interrogate him, they could do so through virtual mode.
On June 15, the Ghaziabad police registered a case against Twitter Inc., Twitter Communications India Pvt Ltd (Twitter India), news website The Wire, journalists Mohammad Zubair and Rana Ayyub, besides Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Muskoor Usmani, Shama Mohammed and author Saba Naqvi. has done.
He was booked over the circulation of a video in which an elderly man, Abdul Shamad Saifi, alleged that he was thrashed by some youths, who also asked him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on June 5.
According to the police, the video was shared to create communal unrest.
A petition by Maheshwari challenging the notice issued by the Uttar Pradesh Police was presented during the hearing by a single judge bench as part of its probe into a communally sensitive video uploaded by a user on the Twitter platform. Personal presence was demanded.
Justice G Narendra’s order is expected to be pronounced on Friday.
As Justice Narendra wanted to know whether US-headquartered Twitter Inc. can be called a parent company, Maheshwari’s counsel CV Nagesh said, “Twitter Inc. is a parent company.
We have nothing to do with this (Twitter Inc.).
It (Twitter India) is an independent organization and an independent institution.”
When the judge asked about the promoters and shareholding pattern of Twitter India, Nagesh said that Twitter India is only an affiliated company of Twitter Inc.
The judge then pointed out that there is no such thing as an affiliated company.
In general terms, it is called sister company or associate on the basis of shareholding and memorandum of association.
To this Nagesh said, “Let me go on record that Twitter USA (Inc) does not have a single share in Twitter India. That’s why I’m saying it’s a completely different entity.”
Ghaziabad Police’s counsel P Prasanna Kumar said Twitter Inc “will face the consequences of saying they don’t know who Twitter India is”.
“I direct that 99 per cent of the company’s shares are held by Twitter Inc.,” Kumar said.
“All the associates of the petitioner till date have been representing Twitter India and Twitter Inc before the Central Government agencies,” Kumar said.
He argued that “unless Twitter India officials were interconnected”, the board of Twitter Inc. would not have authorized its Twitter India employees to represent them to central government agencies.
Justice Narendra said that the board of directors can authorize anyone.
During the debate, Nagesh on Friday offered to keep a memo on record that Twitter USA is not even a shareholder.
Elaborating on the share holding pattern, he said, Twitter International Company, which is headquartered in Ireland, has 9,999 shares, while Twitter Netherlands holds one share.
However, it is Twitter Inc. that runs the platform.
The Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) police had on June 21 issued a notice under Section 41-A of CrPC asking Maheshwari to report at Loni Border Police Station at 10:30 am on June 24.
He then moved the Karnataka High Court as he resides in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
On June 24, the High Court in an interim order restrained the Ghaziabad Police from initiating any coercive action against him.
Justice Narendra had also said that if the police wanted to interrogate him, they could do so through virtual mode.
On June 15, the Ghaziabad police registered a case against Twitter Inc., Twitter Communications India Pvt Ltd (Twitter India), news website The Wire, journalists Mohammad Zubair and Rana Ayyub, besides Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Muskoor Usmani, Shama Mohammed and author Saba Naqvi. has done.
He was booked over the circulation of a video in which an elderly man, Abdul Shamad Saifi, alleged that he was thrashed by some youths, who also asked him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on June 5.
According to the police, the video was shared to create communal unrest.
.