The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday sought the Union government’s reply to the appeal filed by X Corp against a single judge’s decision that had upheld the Centre’s authority to issue content blocking directions through the central Sahyog portal for automatic takedown notices to online intermediaries.
A bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Poonacha directed the Union government to file its reply within four weeks.
Senior counsel KG Raghavan, who appeared for X Corp, told the bench that the appeal seeks to overturn the single bench’s judgment delivered on September 24 last year, which had dismissed the social media company’s plea questioning the scope of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
In its original petition filed in March last year, challenging the union government’s mandatory direction to social media intermediaries to join the Sahyog portal, X Corp had argued that officers of the central government do not have independent statutory power to issue blocking orders under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. It had argued that such directions can only be issued under the detailed procedural framework prescribed in Section 69A of the IT Act, read with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
On September 24 this year, however, a single bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna had rejected this contention and dismissed X Corp’s plea holding that the government’s use of the Sahyog portal was legally valid and consistent with the scheme of the IT Act.
Justice Nagaprasanna had said at the time that content on social media needed to be regulated and that the Court had found no merit in the issues raised by X Corp in its plea.
The Union government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, had argued before the Court at the time that X’s refusal to join Sahyog was a “deliberate act” of non-cooperation that was hampering the government’s efforts to address “threats to public order and national security.”
SG Mehta had also warned that X Corp’s refusal to join the portal might result in the social media intermediary losing its safe harbour protection and that it might attract prosecution under the IT Act.
On Tuesday, senior advocate Raghavan however, argued that the single judge had failed to consider that Section 79, which provides for the safe harbour provision designed to protect intermediaries from liability, can not be used as a “derivative power” by the government to order content takedowns.
X Corp has maintained that the government’s actual legal power to order blocking or takedowns comes from section 69A of the IT Act which allows taking down or blocking of online content, but also provides safeguards such as written orders, fair hearings etc. for the intermediaries.
Raghavan told the Court that the Supreme Court too had upheld the safeguards provided under section 69 in its landmark 2015 judgement in the case of Shreya Singhal vs Union of India.
The high court then said it will examine the matter after the union government files its response.