IT Rules: Delhi High Court Issues Notice On TV Today's Plea Challenging Rule 3(1)(c) Which Empowers Intermediaries To Block User Accounts

The Delhi High Court yesterday issued notice on a plea moved by media organization TV Today Network which owns India Today and Aaj Tak news channels, challenging the constitutional validity of Rule 3(1)(c) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Rule 3(1)(c) states “an intermediary shall periodically inform its users, at least once every year, that in case of non-compliance with rules and regulations, privacy policy or user agreement for access or usage of the computer resource of such intermediary, it has the right to terminate the access or usage rights of the users to the computer resource immediately or remove non-compliant information or both, as the case may be.”

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued notice on the plea which seeks reading down of the Rule in question to make it consistent with Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957 and Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

TV Today is aggrieved by the suspension of its Instagram account created for its magazine Harper's Bazaar India (bazaarindia) based on third-party copyright complaints.

TV Today's counsel submitted that restricting or terminating access to the platform is violative of its Constitutional rights under Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution. He submitted that over 99% content on its account is genuine and only 0.7% content is flagged, for which they are claiming "fair use" under Section 52 of the Copyright Act.

The provision stipulates that fair dealing with any work for research, review or news reporting will not constitute an infringement of copyright. "I am a news organisation...They are not in a position to decide whether my use is fair use or not," the counsel submitted.

However, Court said it cannot pass any orders until Instagram is present before it.

TV Today then submitted that it would file an appeal before the Grievance Appellate Committee provided for under the IT Rules by today.

Accordingly, the bench ordered that if such an appeal is filed, the Grievance Appellate Committee will decide the same as expeditiously as possible, preferably, within two weeks.

The matter will now be heard on May 17.

It is TV Today's case that the impugned action has been undertaken without following any safeguards as provided for the takedown under Rule 4(8) of unlawful or infringing content specifically identified to be unlawful or infringing under Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules.

“Issue notice. Mr. Kirtiman Singh, CGSC for UOI/R-1 accepts notice. Issue notice to unserved Respondents by all modes, returnable on 17th May, 2024,” the court said.

Counsel for Petitioners: Mr. Abhishek Malhotra, Ms. Subhalaxmi Sen and Mr. Raghav Shukla, Advocates

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Kirtiman Singh, CGSC with Mr. Waize Ali Noor, Mr. Varun Pratap Singh, Mr. Kartik Baijal and Mr. Varun, Advocates for UOI

Title: T.V. TODAY NETWORK LIMITED AND ANR. v. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

Click Here To Read Order