New Delhi: The Supreme Court has listed for 16 July a government petition to transfer the cases challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, from various High Courts to itself.
A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna tagged the government’s transfer plea to a pending special leave petition titled ‘Justice for Rights Foundation Vs Union of India’. Justice Khanwilkar said the case would be listed before an appropriate Bench on 16 July.
“We will tag the Centre’s plea with the Special Leave Petition (SLP),’ the bench said, referring to the SLP in which the Supreme Court, in March, stayed proceedings in high courts on petitions over regulation of OTT platforms. To Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s request that proceedings pending in the high courts be stayed, the bench said, ‘We’re not saying anything. We’re simply tagging it with the other matter.”
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules, 2021, were notified on 25 February and social media platforms operating in the country were given time till 25 May to comply with various norms as mandated by the IT Rules. Petitions challenging the rules have been filed in at least five high courts: Delhi, Madras, Bombay, Kerala and Calcutta.