Delhi High Court refuses interim relief to AltNews parent company; issues notice in plea challenging validity of IT Rules 2021

The Delhi High Court on Monday declined to grant interim relief to Pravda Media Foundation, the parent company of fact checking website, AltNews, in relation to the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021)..A vacation bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Subramonium Prasad, however, issued notice to the Central government in the plea filed by Pravda challenging the IT Rules, 2021. This plea is the third of its kind filed before the High Court, after The Quint and The Wire challenged the vires of the Rules..When the matter was heard today, Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for Pravda, sought a stay on the operation of the Rules. She said that the Central government had sought the petitioner's compliance with the new Rules while litigation was pending on the issue.Ramakrishnan also submitted that all the information the Centre was seeking from her clients was available in the public domain. Despite this, she said, the media house received a threatening letter on June 18 saying that consequences would follow."The IT Act does not allow the Centre to sit in judgment over content on digital media. They are threatening us with action and consequences via the letter dated June 18," Ramakrishnan argued..However, the Court was of the view that there was no question of procuring interim relief from a vacation bench. Moreover, the Court maintained that the Centre was only implementing the earlier notification, and that no stay had been granted during three previous hearings before the High Court."You've had three hearings and moved an application for interim stay. The matter came up on May 27, 2021. You had no interim order from the Division Bench. They are only implementing a notification on which you have no stay.".The Court eventually proceeded to list Pravda's application for interim relief on July 7, before the regular bench. It issued notice in Pravda's writ petition challenging the Rules, which will be heard along with the other two pleas on August 4. Notice was accepted on behalf of the respondents by Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee and Kirtiman Singh. .The IT Rules, 2021 are challenged as being ultra vires Articles 19(1) (a), 19 (1) (g), 14 and 21 of the Constitution, as they impose government oversight and a Code of Ethics, thereby exceeding the scope of the parent Information Technology Act.On March 19 this year, the Court had issued notice to the Central government on both the writ petition and the application for stay on the IT Rules, 2021 filed by The Quint. The Centre had asked for more time and was granted the same in order to file a reply. However, no such reply had been filed..Delhi High Court seeks response from Centre in The Quint's challenge to IT Rules on digital media.When the matter came up for hearing, in May this year, a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had deemed it as 'not urgent' and listed it for hearing on August 4.Last Monday, when the matter was put before a vacation bench of Justices Anup Bhambhani and Jasmeet Singh, the former recused himself for hearing it..Justice Anup Bhambhani recuses from hearing challenge to IT Rules, 2021 by The Quint, The Wire and others.Read order here: