No fact-check unit under new IT rules till July 5: Centre to Bombay HC

The Union government has given an undertaking to the Bombay High Court that it will not constitute a fact-check unit under the new IT rules, 2023 till July 5.

The Union government has given an undertaking to the Bombay High Court that it will not constitute a fact-check unit under the new Information Technology Rules, 2023 till July 5, holding off on a controversial new committee that could compel social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to remove posts relating to the Union government.

The undertaking was made in an affidavit filed in response to a challenge by comedian Kunal Kamra, (Agencies/Representative use) (HT_PRINT)

The undertaking was made in an affidavit filed in response to a challenge by comedian Kunal Kamra, who challenged the rules for being restrictive on the right to free speech, and sought the rules to be struck down.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, appearing for the ministry of electronics and technology (Meity), told a division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Neela Gokhale that the Centre was willing to make a statement that a notification would not be issued till the next date of hearing.

Senior advocate Darius Khambata, representing Kamra, too sought a statement from the ministry that the amended IT rules would not be implemented until a notification on the FCU was issued, but the bench denied its request.

However, when Khambata insisted that there should be a stay on the rules as these would violate the citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and expression, guaranteed under article 19(1)(a) of the constitution, the court said: “We believe this is not a reason to immediately go into the question of stay or suspension of the rules, as without a FCU being notified, the rules cannot be in force.”

Read: Amended IT rules don’t offer necessary protections to satire and parody: HC

The bench also directed Meity to submit by June 6 a list of judgements of the Supreme Court and high courts pertaining to the IT rules and the powers of the legislature to implement them. The court also asked the Centre to file an affidavit in response to the petition on June 8, the next date of hearing.

Kamra has challenged the validity of the amended rules 3(i)(II)(A) and (C) for being ultra vires to section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and violative of the principles enshrined in articles 14, 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(g) of the constitution.

The rules require social media intermediaries to make “reasonable efforts to cause users to not publish, display, upload or share information in respect of business of the Central government that is identified as fake, false or misleading by such FCU of the Central government as the Meity may specify”, the petition filed through advocate Meenaz Kakalia on April 10 said.

Kamra contended that the rules do not define the term “business of the Central government”. He has also expressed apprehension over misuse of the term “reasonable efforts”, stating that the intermediary may simply take down the content if the government’s FCU identifies it as fake, or make it unavailable for users in India.

The satirist has also said that his “ability to engage in political satire would be unreasonably and excessively curtailed if his content were to be subjected to manifestly arbitrary, subjective fact-check by a hand-picked unit designated by the Central government”.

“Satire, by its very nature, does not lend to such a fact-checking exercise,” he contended.