The Supreme Court today (July 4, 2019) refused to allow the plea of Chinese social media app TikTok for the transfer of case relating to its ban from the Madras High Court to itself.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi did not agree with the contention raised by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for the Chinese firm, that all the matters pending in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court be transferred here for final and expeditious disposal.
"We are not inclined to entertain this transfer petition," the Bench, also comprising of Justice Deepak Gupta, said prompting the firm to withdraw the petition.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed the Madras High Court to decide on April 24, 2019, the plea of TikTok seeking interim relief of lifting the ban imposed by it. Subsequently, the High Court lifted the ban on the social media app, however, with the condition that the platform should not be used to host obscene videos.
On April 3, 2019, the High Court had directed the Centre to ban mobile application TikTok as it had voiced concern over "pornographic and inappropriate content" being made available through such apps. It had passed an interim order on a public interest litigation which sought a ban on the app on the ground that it allegedly carried contents that "degraded culture and encouraged pornography."
Following the ban, the app was removed by both Google and Apple from their online stores.
