Greeva Garg –
The Delhi High Court refused to grant interim relief in a petition filed by news portals, The Wire, The Quint and AltNews.
Challenging the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021), the petitioners have filed a fresh application for interim relief in respect to their petition.
The division bench comprising of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh refused to grant the interim relief pursuant to the time granted to the Central Government and other respondents for replying to the application of the petitioners against the IT rules.
Pravda Foundation, a patent company under AltNews filed the latest application before the Delhi High Court for interim protection from the coercive action under the IT rules, 2021.
The petitioners sought control of Governmental oversight, as the news IT rules exceeds the scope of the patent Information Technology Ace, 2000. The petitioners challenged the IT Rules, 2021 under provisions of Article 19(1) (a), 19 (1) (g), 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The High Court has further posted the matter for hearing on August 20. In regard to a writ petition and application for stay filed by The Quint earlier in March, the High Court issued notice to the Centre in order to file a reply. Since then, no such reply has been filed.
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