The Bombay High Court on Friday struck down the IT Amendment Bill, 2023, which would have required the central government to set up fact-checking units on social media platforms to identify and debunk “false and misleading” information about their operations.
“I am of the view that the amendment bill violates Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India,” said the deciding judge, Atul Chandurkar.
The case came before the casting judge after a division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Dr. Neela Gokhale delivered separate judgments in January 2024. Justice Chandukkar said the amendments also violated Article 21 and did not satisfy the proportionality test.
We inform you that in 2023, the central government amended the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Code of Conduct for Digital Media) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules 2021). But Rule 3, which empowers the Centre to create an FCU to identify fake online news, has faced criticism and legal challenges.
In this regard, a petition has been filed in the court. The petitioners, including stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, have argued that the amendments are ultra vires the powers of Section 79 of the IT Act and infringe upon the constitutional right to equality (Section 14) and the right to engage in any profession or occupation or in any business, trade or infringe upon the freedom of commerce (Section 19(1)(a)(g)).
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