With a flurry of petitions being filed in various courts of India challenging the country’s new digital regulations, especially by news outlets, the federal government had requested the Supreme Court that all such cases be toggled together and lower courts be barred from entertaining such pleas. The apex court turned down the request Friday.

However, the Supreme Court ordered that the federal government’s transfer petition on Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) be tagged with a pending special leave petition relating to the issue in a case of Union of India vs. Foundation for Independent Journalism & others, legal website Bar and Benchreported.

The federal government by way of its transfer petition had sought transfer of all cases in lower courts, challenging the constitutionality of the IT Rules 2021, to the Supreme Court.

When the case came up for hearing on Friday, Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna tagged the plea with an appeal filed by Justice for Rights Foundation pending before the top court, the Bar and Benchreport said.

[IT Rules challenge] No stay by Supreme Court on High Court proceedings for now; Central government's transfer petition tagged with pending plea

report by @DebayonRoy #ITrules2021 #supremecourtofindia

Read more here: https://t.co/L8yJFw5HXI pic.twitter.com/6S6AyJRrAH

— Bar and Bench (@barandbench) July 9, 2021

The government’s transfer plea had contended that if lower courts were allowed to hear individual petitions, outcomes could result “in a likelihood of conflict between the decisions of the Hon’ble High Court and this Hon’ble Court (Supreme Court).”

Several High Courts, including those of Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Kerala, are presently hearing challenges to the new IT Rules with the Kerala HC also granting interim relief to petitioners.

Dwelling on the same issue, NDTV reported that news publishers have alleged the new rules infringe upon basic constitutional rights, including freedom of the press, and are designed to enable the government a far tighter grip over online news content.

The IT Rules were extensively defended by former IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and his successor Ashwini Vaishnaw too hasn’t said anything contrary.

On the other hand, the federal government has countered the new IT Rules were needed to regulate content on social media and to ensure that all online news complies with the law, apart from OTT platform adhering to some basic content rules.

News publishers and SM players like Twitter have been at loggerheads with the Indian government over various provisions of the new regulations, which include appointing certain specific executives resident in India to take up complaints from the general public.

Twitter has various cases filed against it and employees in several Indian States.