The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rebuked Twitter over the delay in appointing a resident grievance officer as per the new IT Rules in the country. 

“How long does your process take? If Twitter thinks it can take as long as it wants in our country, I’ll not allow that,” ANI quoted Justice Rekha Palli as saying. 

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The court further set a July 8 deadline for the micro-blogging platform to inform by when it will appoint a grievance officer in compliance with the new IT Rules. 

Meanwhile, Twitter said it is in the process of appointing a resident grievance officer. The San Francisco-based website is weeks late in complying with the new laws that require social media sites to appoint India-based officers. 

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Sajan Poovayya, Twitter’s legal counsel, said that the firm “might need two weeks’ time to appoint a grievance officer.”

The court asked why Twitter had not replaced former grievance officer Dharmendra Chatur, who resigned on June 21. “You better come up with a clear response or you will be in trouble,” the court said after the lawyer requested for a day’s time for finalising the timeline. 

The Centre said that Twitter had already been given three months’ time to comply with the rules. “We aren’t giving them any protection. We have already made it clear. They have to comply with the rules,” the court said. 

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This comes a day after the government told the court that Twitter could lose its legal immunity to take action over third-party content as it is yet to comply with the new rules. 

The Centre cited data from the company’s website to say that grievances from India were being handled by an official in the US, which is against the requirements of the new IT rules. 

The rules are the law of the land and Twitter has to comply, the Centre said.