Madras HC to take up case concerning Social Media Companies and cybercrime next on September 19

The Madras High Court today adjourned the hearing in the PIL kept pending to navigate ways to curb online crime with the aid of social media companies to September 19. The development comes following a plea made by Facebook to transfer the proceedings to the Supreme Court, which is due to be taken up by the Supreme Court on September 13..When the matter came up before the Supreme Court yesterday, the Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose had adjourned the matter to the said date while ordering that no final or effective orders should be passed by the High Court in the matter until the top Court takes a call on the transfer plea. Nevertheless, the Bench had clarified that the High Court may continue hearing the matter in the meanwhile..When the case was taken up for hearing today, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued for Facebook that it would be a waste of the Court’s time if the High Court Bench were to continue hearing the matter before the Supreme Court decided on whether it should be transferred..Countering the submissions, Advocate General Vijay Narayan urged the Court to continue hearing the matter, particularly in view of the specific direction of the Supreme Court that the High Court may continue hearing the matter, even though it may not pass any final orders for the time being..In response, Rohatgi highlighted that the Supreme Court had only left it to the High Court’s discretion to continue hearing the matter. However, in view of the order not to pass any effective orders until the Supreme Court’s decision on Facebook’s transfer plea, Rohatgi argued that it would be more appropriate to wait before hearing the matter further..The Bench also made allied oral observations, remarking that further hearings conducted in the case would be futile if the Supreme Court were to eventually transfer the matter..It proceeded to pass an order adjourning the further hearing in the case to September 19, after the Supreme Court takes up the transfer plea next..Prayer to link Aadhaar with Social Media / E-mail not being entertained, HC reiterates.It may be recalled that these hearings have its origins in a plea filed in 2018 by activist, Antony Clement Rubin to link Aadhaar with e-mail IDs to help trace online crimes..At the outset itself, the Bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad made it clear that it would not entertain the plea for Aadhaar linkage. At the time, the Bench cited the pendency of the Aadhaar case in the Supreme Court for declining the prayer. Social media giants WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube were impleaded in the case last year on the Court’s directions..However, even after the Aadhaar judgment, the Bench has clarified time and again that it would not be entertaining the prayer for Aadhaar linkage. Rather, the PIL has been kept pending to examine ways in which social media companies may cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies to investigate and curb online crimes..This aspect was reiterated towards the end of today’s hearing as well. The Bench emphasized that it is only on the aspect of the obligation on social media companies to give information to Law Enforcement when it comes to criminal investigation..In response, Rohatgi also submitted that the Supreme Court has also been informed that there is no Aadhaar linkage being contemplated. He said that this aspect was pointed out in yesterday’s hearing as well, including by Attorney General KK Venugopal. .Among others present for today’s hearing before the High Court were Senior Advocate Satish Parasan and Vivek Reddy for Facebook, Senior Advocate PS Raman for Google and YouTube, Senior Advocate NL Rajah for WhatsApp and Advocate Suhrith Parthasarathy for the Internet Freedom Foundation. Additional Government Pleader, E Manoharan also appeared for the Tamil Nadu government..[Read the Order]