NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday has stayed proceedings before various High Courts in cases involving challenges to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.
The top court has issued a notice in the transfer petition filed by the Central government to transfer all the pleas before the High Courts to the apex court. The top court, however, has not stayed the interim orders already passed by the High Courts.
"We direct stay of further proceedings pending before the High Courts in the respective cases or to be filed hereafter until the next date of hearing involving a challenge to the IT Rules or Cable TV (Amendment) Rules, which are the subject matter of proceedings in these cases," the bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said.
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The top court will be hearing a cluster of petitions challenging The Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules 2021 and different parts of the IT rules 2021 on May 19.
Some petitions have prayed for the declaration of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 to be judged as violative of Articles 13, 14, 19(1)(a), 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Constitution of India
One of the pleas says that Intermediaries Rules 2021 have not been issued following due process under the IT Act 2000. The plea by online legal news portal LiveLaw contends that they are vague, suffer from an excessive delegation of powers and will lead to the exercise of judicial functions by non-judicial authorities.
The petitions have challenged parts of the rules that seek to regulate the publishers of news and current affairs content and publishers of online curated content.
"In substance, Part III imposes an unconstitutional three-tiered complaints-and-adjudication structure upon publishers, which makes the executive both the complainant and the judge on vital free speech questions involving blocking and takedown of online material," one of the petition reads.
Several online news portals such as the Leaflet, LiveLaw etc have challenged the IT Rules, 2021.