Bombay HC holds fact checking units unconstitutional
Image credit X.com
Bombay HC rules fact checking units violate Article 14 & 21
By Raisina Correspondent
New Delhi, September 20: The Bombay High Court has trashed the IT Rules amendments under which fact check unit (FCU) was set up under the Press Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The single judge of the High Court, tasked to adjudicate the challenge to the amendment, has held that the changes are unconstitutional.
Single-judge Justice Atul Chandurkar of the Bombay High Court ruled that “the amendments are violative of Article 14 and Article 19 of the Constitution of India”.
The decisive verdict now has taken away the basis under which the FCU was set up by the Central government. The government on a few occasions in the past has given details of works done by the FCU.
Also Read: PIB Fact Check Unit decried by press bodies busted 1160 fake news
The FCU under the PIB regularly dubs contents on the social media platforms and even of the news media “fake”. A number of YouTube channels have been taken down in the recent past on the basis of the reports of the FCU of the PIB.
Justice Atul Chandurkar was assigned the task to adjudicate the matter after the previous verdict had ended in a tie. A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Dr Neela Gokhale had delivered a split verdict in January 2024.
Karnataka government also has established a fact checking unit to flag “fake news and contents on a real-time basis”. The independent press bodies had also raised concerns on the fact checking units set up by the government.
Also Read: Fact Check Unit: Age of government regulated news dissemination shapes up
The press bodies had argued that the fact checking units amounted to censorship. With the government being subject of news reports and comments on the social media platforms, the press bodies had argued that the fact checking units had conflict of interests.
Live Law reported that Justice Chandurkar also held that the amendments to the IT Rules were in violation of Article 21.
In a reply during the Question Hour, the government has last year told the Lok Sabha that the “Fact Checking Units had busted 1160 fake news items”. The government has explained that the FCU under the PIB worked on the principle of “Find, Assess, Check, and Attack”.
The government had claimed that the FCU under the PIB had acted on “37000 queries sent by the citizens for fact checks”.
The government had also informed the Lok Sabha that the FCU under the PIB had been set up in 2019. The government had also stated that “the FCU under the PIB acts suo motu as well as requests of the citizens sent through e-mail and WhatsApp”.
Join WhatsApp channel of The Raisina Hills
About The Author
