Bombay HC strikes down amended IT Rules; terms them unconstitutional

The Bombay High Court on Friday held as unconstitutional and struck down the amended Information Technology IT Rules which sought to identify fake and false content on social media against the governmentThe matter was assigned to Justice A S Chandurkar as tiebreaker judge after a division bench in January delivered a split verdict on the petitions challenging the amended IT rulesJustice Chandurkar on Friday held that the rules violated constitutional provisionsI have considered the matter extensively The impugned rules are violative of Article 14 right to equality 19 freedom of speech and expression and 191g freedom and right to profession of the Constitution of India the judge saidThe expression fake false and misleading in the Rules was vague and hence wrong in the absence of any definition he addedWith this ruling the high court allowed the petitions filed by standup comedian Kunal Kamra and others challenging the new rules including the provision to set up a Fact Checking Unit FCU to identify fake or false content about the governmentThe petitions against the IT Rules were referred to Justice Chandurkar after a division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale delivered a split verdict in JanuaryWhile Justice Patel struck down the Rules Justice Gokhale upheld themJustice Patel had said the Rules amounted to censorship but Justice Gokhale had opined they did not have any chilling effect on free speech as arguedJustice Chandurkar on Friday said he agreed with the opinion given by Justice Patel now retiredOn April 6 2023 the Union government promulgated amendments to the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021 including a provision for an FCU to flag fake false or misleading online content related to the governmentUnder the IT Rules if the FCU comes across any posts that are fake false and contain misleading facts about the business of the government it would flag the same to social media intermediariesOnce such a post is flagged the intermediary has the option of either taking down the post or putting a disclaimer on the sameIn taking the second option the intermediary loses its safe harbourimmunity and stands liable for legal actionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever