During a Karnataka High Court session on July 1, 2025, a lawyer representing X (formerly Twitter) referred to government officials as “Tom, Dick, and Harry” while criticizing the broad powers granted to them under Indian law to issue content removal orders. This remark came up during a dispute over a video that the Ministry of Railways wanted to be removed, showing a woman driving a car on a railway track in Hyderabad. The lawyer argued that such powers could be misused, potentially undermining due process.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the government, objected strongly to the language used, defending the legal authority of government officials. The presiding judge, Justice M. Nagaprasanna, also criticized the comment, reaffirming the respect due to government officials.
The case centers on X’s challenge to a government-run website that it claims acts as a “censorship portal,” arguing that it enables multiple officials to issue content removal orders without proper legal safeguards. The Indian government counters that the website merely serves as a notification tool to ensure compliance, not to enable content censorship.
The Karnataka High Court has set a final hearing for July 8, 2025, and allowed X Corp to amend its petition to include several Union ministries. The Union of India has been instructed to file a response before the next hearing.
This legal conflict is part of the growing tension between X and the Indian government regarding content moderation and censorship practices, a dispute that has been intensifying since 2021.
