CHENNAI: What is wrong with bringing a mechanism for checking fake news? Madras High Court asked a public interest litigation petitioner who challenged the government’s order for constituting a fact-checking unit (FCU) to combat fake online news.
The question was raised when a PIL petition filed by AIADMK’s Information Technology (IT) wing functionary Nirmal Kumar came up for hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy on Monday.
Nirmal Kumar sought the court to issue an injunction against the operation of the G.O. providing for the constitution of the fact-checking unit (FCU). Senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing the petitioner, contended the state government does not have the powers to bring in such a mechanism since the amended IT Rules provided for setting up them by the Centre.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran, appearing for the government, submitted the petition is not maintainable and the petitioner has no locus standi since he is facing two criminal cases for peddling fake news.
Senior counsel PS Raman, representing the FCU, recalled the adverse impact, the peddling of fake news as if Bihari migrant labourers were attacked in Tamil Nadu, created a few months ago. He said the mechanism is to enable the state government to arrest the dissemination of fake news regarding the government.
The bench posted the matter to December 6 citing the impending verdict of the Bombay High Court on a batch of petitions challenging the legality of IT Amendment Rules, 2023.