New Delhi (Agency): On Friday, the Indian Government informed the Bombay High Court that it won’t be implementing the ‘Fact Check Unit’ (FCU) until September 4th. The FCU is part of the new Information Technology (IT) Rules, which aim to identify and counter fake news against the government on social media.
The request to delay the FCU activation was presented to Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. He asked the court to postpone the earlier set dates for the government to present its reasons for the new IT rules.
The court has been looking into several petitions opposing the updated IT rules. The petitions were filed by entities like stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India, and the Association of Indian Magazines. They called the rules arbitrary and unconstitutional, arguing that they could infringe on citizens’ basic rights.
Following the completion of arguments by the petitioners’ lawyers, the court scheduled the dates of July 27th and 28th for Mehta to present his arguments. However, Mehta requested that the court move the dates to the end of August due to his involvement in an upcoming Supreme Court hearing on Article 370.
The bench agreed to Mehta’s request and rescheduled the hearing for August 31st and September 1st. Mehta also confirmed that the FCU’s activation, as stated by the Union government, would be delayed until September 4th.
This year in April, after the petitions were filed, the government informed the court that it would delay the FCU activation until July. However, this deadline has been repeatedly extended as the court hears arguments about the petitions.