The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay any proceedings in connection with the petitions against the constitutional validity of the Centre’s new IT rules before various high courts.
Supreme Court To Tag The Plea As Pending SLP
As per the latest reports, the Central government moved to the Supreme Court seeking to transfer all of the petitions to it citing that there multiple petitions in many high courts. Several High Courts including Delhi, Madras, Kerala and Bombay are hearing petitions against the new IT Rules.
In its plea, the Centre said, the issue of regulating the OTT platform was pending before the top court. A bench comprising of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna tagged the central government petition, seeking transfer of all such cases to the top court, with an appeal filed by Justice for Rights Foundation, which is pending before the court.
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At the same time, the bench also refused to pass any direction regarding an interim stay on the proceedings across various high courts challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that there were cases pending before the top court challenging the IT Rules. The bench replied: “We will tag with a pending SLP.” The bench did not pay heed to the Centre’s request to stay the proceedings.
The bench clarified that they will not pass the order today. But they are tagging and list before the appropriate bench for July 16.
Central Government Petitions To Transfer All Cases Against IT Rules to the Top Court
The Central government clarified that if all the petitions are transferred to the Supreme Court, it will avoid confusion of the judgement between different high courts. They submitted that the rules have already a record with the court by the petitioners and their issues like validity, adequateness are under consideration.
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The IT rules have been challenged on the ground that it enables the government to virtually dictate content to digital news portals, among others.
