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Ajit Mohan & Ors. v. Legislative Assembly, National Capital Territory of Delhi & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 324Decided 8 Jul 2021
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1088 of 2020
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari · Justice Hrishikesh Roy

Background

Following the 2020 Delhi riots, the Delhi Legislative Assembly's Peace and Harmony Committee summoned senior Facebook India executives (including the petitioner, Ajit Mohan) to testify about the platform's alleged role in spreading content linked to the riots. Facebook's representatives challenged the summons before the Supreme Court, arguing that the Committee had no power to compel their appearance since "public order" and "police" fall under the Union's domain (not the Delhi Assembly's, given Delhi's special constitutional status), and that the Committee's conduct, including a press conference naming Facebook, showed it was overreaching into law-and-order territory and effectively trying to prosecute them.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that an Assembly's committee generally does have the power to summon anyone, including non-members like the petitioners, and to compel their appearance through privilege proceedings: this is not limited to subjects the Assembly can legislate on, since committees also perform broader governance/oversight functions. However, because the Committee's terms of reference included a clause effectively asking it to recommend prosecution, and its Chairman had held a press conference naming Facebook specifically, the Court struck down that one problematic clause and clarified that the Committee cannot act as a prosecuting body or compel answers on matters squarely within the Union's exclusive domain (law and order/police). With these limited safeguards, the writ petition challenging the summons was dismissed, and the Committee proceedings were allowed to continue within those bounds. The judgment also included an unusual "postscript" urging shorter, more efficient court proceedings.

Lesson Learnt

Legislative committees have broad powers to summon witnesses, including executives of private companies with no obvious political immunity, even on matters beyond their power to directly legislate, but those powers have limits where the subject matter falls exclusively within another government's jurisdiction or where the process is being used punitively rather than for genuine fact-finding.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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