Kunal Kamra Plea On IT Rules Amendment: Centre Tells Bombay HC It Will Not Notify Fact Check Unit Till Sept 4

The Union government has informed the Bombay High Court that it will not notify till September 4 its Fact Check Unit (FCU) under the recently amended Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 to identify and act against fake news against the government.

The statement was made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta before a division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale while seeking adjournment in the hearing in a batch of petitions challenging the amended Rules.

HC is hearing batch of pleas challenging the Amends

The HC is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the amended IT rules, including a provision for an FCU to flag fake or false or misleading online content related to the business of the government. The petitions filed by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India and the Association of Indian Magazines have sought directions against the framing of the rules calling them “arbitrary, unconstitutional”.

Counsels for the petitioners have concluded their arguments and the court had kept the matter for hearing on July 27 and 28 for Mehta’s arguments.

However, on Friday, Mehta mentioned the matter and requested the court to keep the matter for hearing at the end of August. “My difficulty is that the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court will commence hearing arguments in matters pertaining to Article 370 (which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir) from August 2. I need to make some preparations for that,” SG said.

Judges to next hear case on August 31 & September 1

The judges then kept the petitions for hearing on August 31 and September 1.

SG assured the court that the Centre’s earlier statement that it will not notify the FCU will continue till September 4.

In April, the Centre had said that it will not notify the FCU till July. The same has been extended from time to time.

Union govt promulgated amendments to IT Rules in April

On April 6, 2023, the Union government promulgated certain amendments to the IT Rules including a provision for a fact-checking unit to flag fake or false or misleading online content related to the government.

The three petitions sought the court to declare the amended Rules unconstitutional and direct the government to restrain from acting against any individual under the Rules.

The Union government in its affidavit filed in comedian Kamra’s petition in April said that the “role of the fact-checking unit is restricted to any business of the Centre, which may include information about policies, programmes, notifications, rules, regulations, implementation thereof, etc”.