Bombay High Court stays two provisions of IT Rules 2021

A division bench of the Bombay High Court has stayed adherence to two clauses of Rule 9 of the Information Technology Rules, 2021, while refusing to stay the rule in its entirety.

The Bombay High Court has stayed adherence of two clauses of Information Technology (Guidelines for intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which requires digital news media and online publishers to adhere to the "Code of Ethics" as prescribed by the rules. The court stayed Rules 9 (1) and 9 (3) on Saturday as it observed that prima facie these provisions infringe upon the fundamental right to freedom of speech and also go against the substantive provisions of the Information Technology Act 2002.