In a major setback for the Centre, the Bombay High Court on Friday struck down the amended Information Technology (IT) Rules which aimed to identify fake and false content on social media against the government.
Terming the amended rules as 'unconstitutional', Justice A. S. Chandurkar said the rules violated, "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."
In January, the division bench delivered a split verdict on the petitions challenging the amended IT rules. Due to the split verdict, the case was assigned to Justice Chandurkar as 'tie-breaker judge'.
While delivering the verdict, the judge pointed out that the expression "fake, false and misleading" mentioned in the Rules was "vague and hence wrong". He pointed out that there is no definition for the terms mentioned in the Rules.
Many including stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra challenged the new rules, including the provision to set up a Fact Checking Unit (FCU) to identify fake or false content about the government.
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Earlier the split verdict was delivered by Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale. While Justice Patel struck down the Rules, Justice Gokhale upheld them.
Justice Gokhale opined that the Rules did not have any 'chilling effect' on free speech as argued. At the same time, Justice Patel had argued that striking down the Rules amounted to censorship.
On April 6, 2023, the Union government introduced significant changes to the IT Rules, 2021, empowering a Fact Checking Unit (FCU) to identify and flag online content deemed fake, false, or misleading regarding government.
This move aims to curb the spread of misinformation, but it’s sparked concerns about potential censorship and the impact on freedom of speech.