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Updated July 6th, 2021 at 20:32 IST

Centre moves SC over impending cases against Twitter in High Courts, seeks transfer

With a spree of cases filed against Twitter impending before several High Courts, the Centre has moved to the Supreme Court seeking intervention in the matter.

Reported by: Jitesh Vachhatani
Twitter
Image Credits: PTI/Pixabay | Image:self
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With a spree of cases filed against Twitter impending before several High Courts, the Centre has moved to the Supreme Court seeking intervention in the matter. As per sources, the Centre has filed a petition seeking transfer of all the Twitter and IT rules related matters pending before the High Courts to the Supreme Court. Centre's plea is likely to be heard on Friday, July 9. 

Apart from cases impending before several High Courts, the Delhi High Court is currently hearing Twitter's petition seeking changes in the new IT rules which came into effect on May 26. The California-based micro-blogging site has failed to comply with the new IT rules which require significant intermediaries to appoint Chief Compliance, Nodal and Grievance officers residing in India. Following the non-compliance, the Centre informed Delhi HC on Monday, July 5 that Twitter had lost its intermediary status in India, making it liable for the content uploaded on the platform. Twitter has also been slapped with FIRs in several matters including the Ghaziabad Loni fake hate video case and NCPCR's complaint against child pornographic content floating on the platform. 

Delhi HC bashes Twitter

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, July 6 expressed displeasure at Twitter's non-compliance with the New IT Rules 2021 and the delay in the appointment of certain officers as mandated under the new IT Rules for the Social Media Intermediaries (SMIs).

"How long does your process take. If Twitter thinks it can take as long it wants in our country, I will not allow that," said a single judge bench of the high court presided over by Justice Rekha Palli. 

The observation came in after Twitter through Senior Advocate Sajan Povaya informed the bench that its still in the final stages of appointing certain officers including a Grievance Redressal Officer. The court also told the Central government that its not granting any protection to the Social media giant. "You're free to take any action against them, we are not giving any protection," the bench told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma. Meanwhile, the Centre through ASG Sharma told the court that even after a three months buffer time was given to the micro-blogging platform, they have still not complied with the New IT Rules 2021.

The submissions were made while the court was hearing a petition filed by Amit Acharya alleging non-compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 by Twitter. The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday, July 8 as Twitter's counsel Sajan Povaya couldn't seek certain instructions due to the time gap between New Delhi and the United States of America (USA).

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Published July 6th, 2021 at 18:29 IST

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