Justice Anup Bhambhani recuses from hearing challenge to IT Rules, 2021 by The Quint, The Wire and others

Justice Anup Bhambhani of the Delhi High Court today recused from hearing the pleas filed by digital media companies including The Quint and The Wire challenging the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021)..The vacation bench of Justices Bhambhani and Jasmeet Singh stated in its order passed today,"The Judge(s) will be recusing from the present matter. We can place it on Monday next, subject to the orders of the Honourable Chief Justice. The matter will be heard next Monday, on June 28, 2021.".The matter will now be heard on June 28 by the Bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and C Hari Shankar..Appearing for the petitioners today, Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan submitted that the IT Rules, 2021 sought to regulate publishers of news and current affairs under Part III. It was also submitted that the IT Rules, 2021 impose government oversight and a Code of Ethics, thereby exceeding the scope of the parent Information Technology Act. Therefore the Rules are ultra vires Articles 19(1) (a), 19 (1) (g), 14 and 21 of the Constitution, Ramakrishnan argued..When Ramakrishnan sought for interim relief, Justice Bhambhani said that he could not hear the matter..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. 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.The urgency of the petitioners to approach this Court during the vacation bench was that no hearing took place on the days of the listing and the matter was adjourned and listed for August. Moreover, it was submitted that the petitioners' fundamental rights were being violated in this case..Delhi High Court seeks response from Centre in The Quint's challenge to IT Rules on digital media.The petition also stated that during the pendency of the challenge, the Centre had slapped the digital media houses with notice after notice, asking them to furnish details of compliance with IT Rules, 2021..When last 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.