New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Tuesday upheld the Indian Army’s ban on the use of social media platforms by its personnel, the Indian Express reported. The court was adjudicating upon a plea entered by an army officer challenging the army’s recent decision to ask its personnel to delete 89 mobile applications including Facebook, Tinder, Instagram, We Chat and Snapchat to “plug leakage of information”.
The bench of Justices R.S. Endlaw and Asha Menon said that it found no reason to entertain the plea and “the question of granting any interim relief does not arise”.
“Especially when the matter has the potential of concerning the safety and security of the country,” the court said.
The officer posted in Jammu and Kashmir who had filed the plea had argued that he used Facebook to communicate with his friends and family, including his daughter who lives abroad. He also said that once he deleted Facebook, he would lose all data and contacts.
The court did not appear impressed by the argument. “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 mandate,” the bench said.
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It also advised the officer to quit the army if he is unwilling to delete Facebook. “If you are so dear to FB, then put in your papers. See you have to make a choice, what do you want to do. You have other choices which are also irreversible,” the court said.
The Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, told the court that it decided to ban the applications including Facebook 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.”
Sharma also said that the officer who had filed the petition can use WhatsApp, Twitter and Skype to communicate with his family. These applications have so far not been banned.