The Kerala High Court on Friday passed an interim order in favour of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), which had challenged India’s new IT Rules, according to a report posted on India Today’s website.

Incidentally, NBA had not got a similar relief when they had approached the Delhi High Court about a fortnight back.

Meanwhile, the single-judge bench of Justice PB Suresh Kumar issued notices to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and said no coercive action shall be taken against the news organisations that are part of the NBA for non-compliance of provisions under the new IT Rules.

In the petition, the News Broadcasters Association had stated that the new rules give government authorities excessive power to unreasonably restrict media rights, the India Today report stated.

NBA has also opined in several forums that since NBA members’ are part of traditional media with digital arms, such digital extensions should not fall under the purview of IT Rules as the parent companies were already guided by other media laws like the Cable TV Act.