The Madras High Court has restrained the federal government from taking any coercive action against digital media firms under the new digital codes of ethics made to the parent Information Technology Act.

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavalu gave the injunction when a public interest litigation (PIL) petition from the Indian Broadcasters and Digital Media Foundation, an industry body for TV channels and digital platforms, came up for hearing on Monday.

“The respondents (India’s federal government) are restrained from taking any coercive action without the permission of the Court,” the bench said and posted the matter for further hearing on January 25, 2022, PTI reported from Chennai.

The petition challenged the provisions of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, brought in February this year.

Earlier, the petitioner’s senior counsel alleged that the federal government was initiating penal action as per the provisions of the Rules, even though the Bombay High Court had granted an interim stay of the Rules a couple of months ago.

The Bombay High Court had on August 14 this year stayed the operation of sub-rules (1) and (3) of Rule 9 of the said Rules of 2021.

The Kerala High Court had also passed a similar order restraining the Centre from taking any action, he pointed out.