New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday, March 21 ordered a stay on the notification of Union government designating the Press Information Bureau’s fact-check arm as the Fact-Checking Unit (FCU) under the amended Information Technology Rules of 2023.
As per Live Law, the Supreme Court bench said, “Quite apart from the statement made by the Union government, the challenges to the rule involves serious constitutional questions. The impact of Rule 3(1)(b)(v) on the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression would fall for analysis by the High Court.”
The bench comprising of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra added: “However, we are clearly of the view that the notification dated March 20, 2024, issued by the Union Govt after the rejection of the application for interim relief, would need to be stayed.”
The stay will be valid till the disposal of the proceedings challenging validity of the fact-checking unit before the Bombay high court. Earlier this month, the high court had said that there will be no interim stay on the Union government notifying the fact-checking unit, a month after a two-judge bench delivered a split verdict on the validity of the specific rule dealing with said unit.
On March 20, the Union electronics and IT ministry had notified the FCU as a statutory body with powers to flag what it believes is false information related to the Central government and its agencies on social media sites.
The petitions were filed by Kunal Kamra, Editors Guild of India and Association of Indian Magazines challenging the refusal of the Bombay high court to stay the implementation of the IT Rules 2023. As per a Live Law report, the CJI-led bench was of the view that there existed prima facie grounds for staying the notification dated March 20, which makes the impugned Rules operational.
As The Wire has reported in the past, there are serious concerns regarding the PIB’s ability to function as an independent body that will conduct fair fact-checks. Researchers at the Internet Freedom Foundation found that the PIB reveals having received nearly 1.2 lakh requests for fact checking information on the internet in the last three years, i.e. since April 2020, whereas it has only acted upon 1,223 of them – a modest 1% action rate.
