The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has issued notice to the State government on a plea challenging the ban on social networking sites that argues that the archaic Indian Telegraphs Act, 1885, “cannot be used for the exercise of maintaining the public order” in J&K.

Hearing two separate petitions filed by Raja Faisal Malik and Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar has issued a notice to the government to file objections by May 16, The Hindu reported on Wednesday.

According to Pirzada Salih, one of the counsels, the sub-clause 2 of Section 5 of the Indian Telegraphs Act in the past was invoked “only to monitor and regulate the messages, which could be in the form of voice, video, picture or text”.