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Delhi HC asks LG, Centre to reply to plea on online content takedown notices
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....elhi HC asks LG, Centre to reply to plea on online content takedown notices<BR>PTI News<BR>Dated:- 29-5-2025<BR>PTI<BR>New Delhi, May 29 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Lieutenant Governor on a plea challenging a notification issued by him empowering police to issue takedown notices for social media content. A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao G....
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....edela issued notice to the LG and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and asked them to file replies within six weeks. The court listed the matter for further hearing on September 17. The bench was hearing a plea filed by Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) challenging the legality and constitutional validity of the notification issued by the LG that designated Delhi Poli....
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....ce as the nodal agency under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, empowering it to issue takedown notices for online content. The notification empowers Delhi Police officers to issue takedown orders to social media companies and other intermediaries to remove illegal content under the Information Technology Act. Advocate Talha Abdul Rahm....
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....an, representing the petitioner, contended that this designation has no basis in law and neither Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, nor the IT Rules, 2021 confer any authority to appoint such a nodal agency. "The statutory power to block or remove online content is exclusively vested in the Central Government under Section 69A of the IT Act, read with the Information Technology (Proced....
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....ure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. The impugned notification, by granting these powers to the police, oversteps constitutional and statutory boundaries and is, therefore, ultra vires the parent legislation," the plea said. It further said that allowing police officers to unilaterally issue takedown notices, without judicial or independent oversight, ....
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....opens the door to unchecked censorship and arbitrary restriction of constitutionally protected speech. It contended that such a move violates Articles 19(1)(a) and 21 of the Constitution and contradicts the landmark judgments of the Supreme Court which emphasise the need for legal safeguards and proportionality in actions impacting fundamental rights. According to the notification issued by the ....
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....Delhi home department in the Delhi Gazette on December 26, 2024, the LG notified the DCPs of districts, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), Economic Offences Wing, crime, special cell, special branch, Indira Gandhi International Airport, railways and Metro to issue "take down notice pertaining to cases reported in their respective jurisdiction and to notify the instances of inform....
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....ation, data or communication link residing in or connected to a computer resource controlled by the intermediary being used to commit the unlawful act". In addition, the joint commissioner of police, IFSO, Special Cell will act as the state nodal officer and will be assisted by the DCP IFSO who has been designated as the assistant state nodal officer. PTI SKV ZMN<BR> News - Press release - PIB....