Supreme Court Stays Fact Check Unit Notification

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the notification pertaining to Fact Check Units (FCUs), which was published in the official gazette on March 20.

The top court said that the notification is being stayed because the union had itself made a statement saying that these units will not be notified until a final verdict on this matter is delivered by the Bombay High Court.

It must be noted that the matter is pending before the high court as of now, and is likely to be taken up for final disposal on April 15, 2024.

The top court added that the impact of FCU's on the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression would need to be analysed by the high court. "The case raises serious constitutional questions," the court said.

The inception of this case goes back to 2023, when stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra moved the Bombay High Court, challenging the constitutional validity of an amended rule in the IT Act.

As per the rule in challenge, an intermediary will be required to make reasonable efforts to ensure that its users do not host, display, upload, modify, publish or share any information in respect of any business of the union government that is identified as false, or misleading by a designated fact check unit.

An intermediary is basically a platform that hosts users who then interact with each other and post information on their respective handles. Common examples of intermediaries would be Facebook, X, Instagram, etc.

A division bench first heard the case, and in January of this year, the bench rendered a split decision on Kamra's challenge, further complicating the legal dispute.

Thereafter, the matter was referred to a tie-breaker judge, Justice AS Chandurkar, and he declined to halt the establishment of the FCUs until the matter was finally adjudicated upon, saying there was no conclusive argument against their notification.