Bombay High Court ruling protects freedom of speech, striking down government-mandated fact-checking unit. (Image: Twitter)
The Bombay High Court has exorcised the spectre of an agency in the form of a fact checking unit (FCU) lording over the publication of matters relating to the Union government in social media by striking down the amendment the Modi government introduced last year to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The rule had enabled the Union government to create an FCU and demand the social media platforms to remove matters it found ‘fake, false and misleading’ if they were to retain the protection as an intermediary. Any media platform could be made to face prosecution.
A 2-1 majority decision of the court found the amendment violative of Article 14 and Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantee equality and freedom of speech and expression, respectively, and found it to be against principles of natural justice. It also found the expressions “fake, false and misleading” in the Rules were “vague and hence wrong” in the absence of a definition.
The court’s observation that the people have the right to information but not the right to truth, addresses the issue in the most comprehensive way a court has attempted yet. It underscores the democratic position that there cannot be a universal position on truth; many people will perceive it in many ways, as expounded in the Vedic statement that “truth is one, but the wise call it by many names”. Attempts to mix the right to information and the right to truth and giving the responsibility to the government would in effect result in the denial of both.
No one, definitely not the government, should be allowed to judge everything citizens say, particularly about the government itself. Such a decision will be the sure recipe for doing away with basic democratic rights. If the government is so insistent that people get to know only facts about it, it should then set up a fact telling unit, instead of a fact checking unit, and leave it to the people to decide which side of the version they wanted to believe. There cannot be a state monopoly on facts in a democracy, and the Bombay high court has just reaffirmed it.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
Next Story
