The Writ Petition filed by Praveen Arimbrathodiyil is transferred from the Kerala High Court to the Supreme Court. The Transfer Petition titled “Union of India vs Bhakta Tripathy [TP (C) No. 1147 – 1152 / 2021] has been filed by Union of India through the Ministry of Information and Braodband and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology before the Supreme Court tagging all the Petitions across the country challenging the The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules, 2021”). A Writ Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India was filed by Praveen Arimbrathodiyil, a free and open-source software (FOSS) developer and a volunteer member of the Free Software Community of India (FSMI), challenging certain provisions of the IL Rules, 2021. The Writ Petition filed by Praveen Arimbrathodiyil can be found here. SFLC.in is providing legal assistance to the Praveen Arimbrathodiyil in challenging the IT Rules, 2021.
UPDATE FROM COURT HEARINGS
09.05.2022
The Court issued notice under all the Petitions. The Solicitor General classified the Petitions filed into (i) Challenge to IT Rules (ii) Challenge to Cable TV Rules (iii) Petitions generally directions for evolving mechanism which would be touching upon the subject matter of IT Rules and (iv) other sets of cases involving instances of hate speech and hate crimes. The Court held that Petitions falling under the third category would not survive as the IT Rules, 2021 have come into place. The Court directed that each category of Petition be listed separately.
19.05.2022
The Solicitor General submitted that there was another Petition that was pending. The Court directed that the said Petition be listed along with the other Petitions challenging IT Rules, 2021.
20.07.2022
The Court directed the registry to list the matters on 27.07.2022
27.07.2022
The Court deferred the hearing till 17.08.2022 on account of the Counsel for Solicitor General seeking an adjournment on ground of personal difficulty of the Solicitor General to appear.
CASE DOCUMENTS
Please find below the following documents in relation to this case:
- A copy of the Order dated 09.05.2022
- A copy of the Order dated 19.05.2022
- A copy of the Order dated 20.07.2022
- A copy of the Order dated 27.07.2022
