Kunal Kamra files Plea against Amended IT Rules, claims it makes government both ‘judge and prosecutor’

Mumbai (India), 11th April 2023: On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court consented to hear an appeal contesting the Centre’s announcement to create a fact-checking unit to cross-reference and validate any and all material about the government posted on social media platforms.

Social and political satirist Kunal Kamra has filed a petition challenging Rule 3(i)(II)(A) and (C). These regulations are a part of the Information Technology Rules of 2022, which were initially published in February 2021 and later changed in 2022 to provide the Center the authority to create a fact-checking organisation under the control of the government.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been ordered by the high court to provide by April 19 a thorough affidavit outlining the rationale for the request to establish the fact-checking unit as well as the history of the regulations under which the proposal was made.

Kamra claims in his request that the regulations enabling the establishment of the fact-checking unit by the central government make it, “a judge and prosecutor in its own cause, thus violating one of the most fundamental principles of natural justice.”’

He further added, “Furthermore, the impugned rules are over-broad, vague, and constitute unreasonable restrictions to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 (1)(a) of the constitution, inter alia, by making the state the sole arbiter of truth or falsity of speech.”

The IT ministry announced last week about the creation of a state-appointed organisation to fact-check all online government-related content deemed to be misinformation or disinformation.

Only material pertaining to central government programmes will fall under the purview of the government fact-checking organisation, which will also notify intermediaries of any content it deems to be false or misleading in the appropriate manner.

The government-run fact-checking unit may send such notices to internet intermediaries, but they are allowed to disagree and choose not to remove the offending content.

However, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister of state for electronics and information technology said that these intermediaries will lose the immunity from user- and third-party-posted content provided by Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act.