'Unconstitutional': Bombay HC Strikes Down Amended IT Rules Allowing Fact-Checking Unit For Social Media Content

Terming it unconstitutional, the Bombay High Court on Friday struck down the amended Information Technology (IT) Rules which allowed the Centre to form fact check units to spot 'fake and misleading' information about its functioning on social media platforms.

What did the court say?

Justice A S Chandurkar today heard the matter as a 'tie-breaker judge', after a division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale in January delivered a split verdict on the petitions challenging the amended IT rules. While Justice Patel struck down the Rules, Justice Gokhale upheld them.

Citing violations of constitutional provisions, the judge said, "I have considered the matter extensively. The impugned rules are violative of Article 14 (right to equality), 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and 19(1)(g) (freedom and right to profession) of the Constitution of India."

"The expression 'fake, false and misleading' in the Rules was 'vague and hence wrong' in the absence of any definition", he added.

With this ruling, the high court allowed the petitions filed by stand-up 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 government.

About the IT rules amendment

On April 6 last year, the Union government introduced amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, including a provision for an FCU to spot fake, false or misleading online content related to the government.

As per the provision, upon coming across any posts that are fake, false, and contain misleading facts about the government, the FCU would flag the same to social media intermediaries. Following which, the intermediary would either take down the post or put a disclaimer on the same.