SC to consider combined hearing of all pleas challenging new IT rules

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India would consider transferring all cases regarding the new Information and Technology rules for digital media to the top court and provide a combined hearing, reports NDTV. The court said after the Union Government filed a transfer petition days after the Bombay High Court put a hold on implementing a part of new IT rules, which meant to regulate content on digital media.

SC has also ordered that the petition will be read along with the case against media reports on the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi last year, blaming the Jamaat meeting as a cause for the spike in Covid-19 cases.

On August 16, the Bombay High Court had stayed the implementation of a part of the new IT rules, which required digital news media to strictly follow the code of conduct laid down by the Press Council of India and India's cable TV code. It had observed that some of the provisions of the rules violate freedom of speech. The court was hearing petitions filed by news portal The Leaflet and journalist Nikhil Wagle, challenging parts of the new rules. Also, the Delhi High Court has refused to freeze the rules, responding to a challenge.

Many cases are pending in different high courts in India, and most of them challenge the rules. Some courts have directed that for now, coercive actions cannot be taken against publishers who have not implemented the rules. Some other parts of the rules were challenged in other courts as well. WhatsApp, the social media platform, has challenged the requirement that its end-to-end encryption needs to break under certain circumstances.

The Union government met a setback after the Supreme Court declined to stop petitions against the rules. The government had claimed that the new rules seek to "prevent misuse of the freedom of the press and shield people from misinformation and fake news through digital media.