Fact Checking Unit not to be notified until July 14 as petitioners yet to complete submissions

A bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale are hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Information Technology (Amendment) Rules, 2023.

Currently, senior counsel Navroz Seervai is in the process of making submissions on behalf of political satirist Kunal Kamra who filed one of the PILs challenging the new rules constituting the fact check unit (FCU) that is empowered to identify “fake or false or misleading” information about any business of the government on online platforms including social media.

“As the arguments are still underway, the undertaking to not constitute an FCU has been extended to July 14,” Radhika Roy, associate litigation counsel at Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) – which is providing legal assistance to Kamra – told ET.

“This is effectively an interim stay on the provisions as of now. If the amendment is found to be unconstitutional by the end, this would mean the central government will not be able to make the FCU operational,” she added.

According to Roy, Seervai’s submissions mostly focussed on freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution and principles of natural justice.

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“The terms in the amendment are so vague and broad, that they have a chilling effect,” she said. “The FCU will consist of bureaucrats. This unit will be tasked with ascertaining whether any information related to their own business is fake, false, or misleading. This brings in the element of bias and being a ‘judge in one’s own case’.”Besides Kamra, IFF is also providing legal assistance to the Association of Indian Magazines that too has filed a PIL challenging the notified amendments.

The government had on June 7 informed the Bombay High Court that it would not constitute the proposed fact-checking body to identify fake news until July 10, after the court had listed a bunch of petitions challenging an amendment to the IT Rules for final hearing on July 6.

The court had directed the government to reply by June 20 to the petitions, including to fresh pleas by the Association of Indian Magazines and the Editors Guild of India against the amendment.

In a statement last month, the guild had said the amendment to the IT Rules will have deeply adverse implications for press freedom in the country.

“…the moment the fact-check unit of the central government disputes the truth/veracity of a news item regarding any business of the central government, the fact of such disagreement alone obliterates the publisher’s freedom to publish and citizen’s right to access such information,” it had said.