The Madras High Court, on Monday, November 20, wondered what was wrong with a mechanism being set up to verify fake news. A bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Nirmal Kumar, a functionary of the Information Technology (IT) wing functionary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), challenging the state government’s order constituting a fact-checking unit (FCU).
Responding to the query from the Chief Justice, senior advocate Vijay Narayan, who represented Nirmal, said that there was a threat that the unit might become a censorship agency. “This will be a very dangerous tool in the hands of the government to completely terrorise people. This is something which will have a chilling effect on free speech,” he contended.
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However, Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran, argued that the petition was not maintainable. He further added that the petitioner Nirmal Kumar did not have a locus standi as he had two criminal cases against him for spreading fake news.
The Tamil Nadu government, on October 6, passed an order directing to set up a Fact-Check Unit that would fact-check news related to the state government across all media platforms, with DMK supporter Iyan Karthikeyan as the Mission Director.
Nirmal Kumar challenged the order, alleging that the formation of FCU could potentially lead to a situation where no information was available to the public. “The illegal formation of the Fact-Check Unit is a frontal attack on the freedom of speech of the citizens in general and the choice of the persons to run it makes it an attempt to curb the opposition,” the petition claimed.
The bench has now posted the case for hearing on December 6, citing that the Bombay High Court was yet to deliver its judgement on the petitions challenging the legality of IT Amendment Rules, 2023.
Satirist Kunal Kamra, in April this year, moved the Bombay HC challenging the new amendment brought to the Information Technology Rules to enable the Union government to identify fake news about the government in social media.
The Union Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeITy) amended the 2021 IT Rules, and one of the primary amendments that became controversial was the provision to form a Fact-checking Unit to identify fake news. The Bombay HC is expected to deliver its judgement on December 1.
Read: Tamil Nadu govt forms fact-check unit, Youturn’s Iyan Karthikeyan to lead it