A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court against Twitter for alleged non-compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 aka India’s new digital norms.

The petition has sought direction from the federal government to pass necessary instructions to Twitter Communication India Private Limited and Twitter Inc to appoint a resident grievance officer under Rule 4 of the digital norms, news service ANI reported from New Delhi.

Amit Acharya, a practicing advocate in the Supreme Court of India and Delhi High Court, through his lawyers Akash Vajpai and Manish Kumar, has filed the petition.

The petitioner said that he had filed a petition seeking an appropriate writ or instruction against the respondent (federal government) and Twitter to perform its statutory and executive duty under Information Technology Rules, 2021.

According to Rule 4 (c) of the IT Rule, every significant social media intermediary (those platforms having five million or more subscribers in India) has to appoint a resident grievance officer, who shall, subject to other conditions as mentioned in the rules, be responsible for the certain functions, stated the petition.

The petition said that every significant social media intermediary has the responsibility to appoint a resident grievance officer (resident in India) who will act as a single point authority for receiving and disposing of complaints within a fixed time.

Every significant social media intermediary, according to the IT Rules, will also develop a mechanism for receipt of a complaint in relation to violation of any provision under the aforesaid rule and will provide a ticket number through which every complainant would be able to track the status of their complaint.

The petitioner also pointed out that the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 has come into force from February 25, and the respondent (federal government) had given three months to every intermediary to comply with the new rules.

This three-month period got over on May 25 but respondent Twitter has separately and jointly failed to appoint a resident grievance officer to redress the complaints of its users with regard to the violation of the provisions of the aforesaid Rules, the petitioner said.

“At this juncture it is also important to mention that Respondent No 2 and 3 (Twitter Communication India Private Limited and Twitter Inc) not only failed to appoint Resident Grievance Officer but has also not appointed Nodal officer and Chief Compliance Officer mentioned under Rules 4 of the IT Rules, 2021,” the petitioner added.

The petition seeks an appropriate direction against the respondent to discharge its executive, statutory and all other obligations under the digital norms without any delay. The petitioner further sought direction to Twitter Communication India Private Limited and Twitter Inc to implement Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021 in letter and spirit.

The Indian government and social media platforms in particular have been sparring with each other for the last one week or so over the new digital norms and whether the players were fully compliant or not.

WhatsApp two days back filed a case against the Indian government saying the new rules would compromise individual privacy and is an overreach by the government. The court hasn’t yet fixed a date for hearing.