Bombay HC strikes down provision in IT rules that allowed Centre to set up fact-checking unit
The court delivered a tie-breaking opinion in the case on Friday, which was necessitated after a division bench arrived at a split verdict in January.
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The Bombay High Court on Friday struck down the provisions in the 2023 Information Technology Amendment Rules that would have enabled the Centre to form a fact-checking unit to act against “fake news”, Bar and Bench reported.
The unit would have had the power to flag any information about the Union government and its workings as false.
The High Court was hearing petitions filed by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India and the Association of Indian Magazines, which challenged the validity of the amendments to the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Amendment Rules, 2023.
Justice AS Chandurkar delivered a tie-breaking opinion on Friday. This came after the matter was referred to him because of a split verdict in the case by a division bench in January.
While Justice Gautam S Patel had ruled in favour of the petitioners and struck down the amendments, Justice Neela Gokhale had dismissed the pleas.
Chandurkar held that the provisions violated Article 14 and Article 19 of the Constitution. Article 14 provides for equality before the law and Article 19 guarantees the freedom of speech.
According to the amendments, if a court or the Union government notified an intermediary that “fake news” was being hosted on their platform, the intermediary would have to take down the content within...
