The Delhi High Court yesterday sought a reply from India’s federal government on a plea challenging the newly notified rules for social media and OTT platforms, and publishers of digital news, according to PTI.

On Monday, the Foundation for Independent Journalism, publisher of The Wire, filed a petition in the Delhi court challenging The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules, 2021, notified on February, 25, 2021, stating the rules go beyond the scope of what is permissible under the IT Act and need to be struck down.

According to The Wire, which is a full-fledged online news portal, the division bench of the high court, comprising Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh, has set April 16, 2021 as the date of the next hearing.

The other petitioner is Dhanya Rajendran, Founder & Editor-In-Chief, The News Minute, a Bengaluru-registered news portal.

The petition challenges the new digital norms as being ultra viresthe Information Technology Act, 2000, which is the parent legislation under which the norms have been framed.

 The petition further state that (“parent Act”) the new guidelines set up a classification of ‘publishers of news and current affairs content’ (“digital news portals”) as part of ‘digital media’, and seek to regulate these news portals under Part III of the Rules (“Impugned Part”) by imposing government oversight and a ‘Code of Ethics’, which stipulates such vague conditions as ‘good taste’, ‘decency’ etc.— matters nowhere within the contemplation of the parent legislation.

“The petitioners bring out wholly digital news and current affairs publications and are, therefore, directly affected by this overreach by way of subordinate legislation. The petitioners’ digital news portals publish news and views, as distinct from curated content. The present petition challenges the IT Rules, 2021 only in so far as they affect digital news portals, and is not with reference to ‘publishers of online curated content’, i.e., OTT media platforms or any other entities sought to be regulated by the Impugned Rules,” the petition states.

However, the government has insisted since bringing in the new digital guidelines that they don’t amount to pre-censorship or curtailing of freedom of the press — MIB secretary Amit Khare penned an opinion piece in a newspaper recently terming criticism of the new rules as looking for a black cat in a dark room where none exists. But critics have said the move was to muzzle journalistic freedom.

The Editors Guild of India has asked the laws to be repealed.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court is also hearing a case that relates to the new laws under the The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules, 2021, which were notified on February 25, 2021 .