Odisha court issues notice to Facebook, Glasgow professor

Cuttack, May 18: Social networking site

India was issued a show cause notice by an Odisha court for allegedly publishing libellous statements against a senior

leader of the state.

Bhubaneswar civil judge Ratikanta Mohapatra issued notices to Kirthiga Reddy, head of Facebook India Pvt Ltd based at Hyderabad, and Bhabani Shankar Nayak, a professor at Glasgow Caledonian University at Scotland in UK asking them to show cause by July 4, 2012 as to why injunctions shall not be allowed against them as prayed by the petitioner.

CPI(M)'s state secretariat member Dushmanta Kumar Das had filed the civil suit claiming that derogatory statements were published on April 9 and May 10 intending to cause loss and injury to the party and its state secretary Janardan Pati. Seeking an injunction against publication of such statements by the defendants, the petitioner also urged the court to direct them to delete the existing statements from its website and award cost to the plaintiff.

Pati had earlier sent legal notices to the social site and to the Glasgow professor, asking them to refrain from tarnishing his and his party's image. He had also filed an FIR against them with the cyber crime police. Pati, in his FIR, had alleged that the statements published by the professor and hosted by the website against him were without any truth. Neither Reddy or Nayak could be immediately contacted.

PTI