Fact-Check Units: An Unchecked Fact Checker – Part II

The Bombay High Court has recently struck down the 2023 amendment (the "2023 Amendment") to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (the "Intermediary Rules"), which amended Rule 3(1)(b)(v) (pertaining to due diligence by an intermediary) (the "Impugned Rule") of the Intermediary Rules. The judgment was delivered by Justice Atul Chandurkar, who acted as the third-referral judge, after the division bench of the Bombay High Court delivered a split decision on January 31, 2024 (please find here a detailed analysis of the split decision).

This update discusses the judgment and analyses its implications.

Background

On January 31, 2024, the division bench of Justice GS Patel and Justice Neela Gokhale delivered a split decision in the case of Kunal Kamra v. Union of India. The primary issue before the division bench was the validity of the 2023 Amendment, which took away the immunity ("Safe Harbour") granted