Supreme Court Stays HC Proceedings Challenging Legality of Sahyog Portal, Govt's Content-Blocking Powers
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (August 7) stayed all high court challenges regarding the constitutional validity of the Sahyog Portal and the censorship powers under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which give the government the authority to easily disable or take down online content.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana passed the order on July 22 while hearing transfer petitions filed by the Union government.
The matters included four cases – two by X Corp and DigiPub News Foundation, respectively, in the Karnataka high court, and two by comedian Kunal Kamra and senior advocate Haresh Jagtiani, respectively, in the Bombay high court.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, sought the transfer of the four pending proceedings to the Supreme Court for a consolidated adjudication.The top court issued notice, returnable on August 10, and directed that all the proceedings before the high court(s) “shall remain stayed", LiveLaw reported.
X Corp, which runs the micro-blogging platform X (formerly Twitter), had first challenged the take-down mechanism before the Karnataka high court by challenging a blocking order that used Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, while also questioning the use of Sahyog Portal for facilitating such orders.
In September 2025, Justice M. Nagaprasanna upheld the validity of the Sahyog Portal and dismissed X Corp's challenge.
In February 2026, Kunal Kamra and Haresh Jagtiani filed separate writ petitions in the Bombay High Court challenging the validity of the Sahyog Portal, along with the 2025 amendment to Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules 2021, saying they are “also ex facie unconstitutional, as they enable the blocking or takedown of information on Internet platforms on wholly vague grounds”.
The Wire has reported on the Union home ministry’s manuals for the Sahyog Portal that read almost like a blueprint to enable quick censorship. They make it easy to ensure bulk deletions, without much application of mind.
The government portal has already left its mark on India’s digital landscape with over 2,300 blocking orders sent to 19 online platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, between October 2024 and October 2025, the Indian Express reported using data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
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