By Ritika Jain Bombay High Court said the amendments to the Information and Technology Rules 2023 was unconstitutional and struck down the Centre’s Fact Checking Unit (FCU) after observing that the expressions “fake or false or misleading” were undefined and “vague”.

Justice Chandurkar agreed with the opinion of Justice Gautam S Patel and struck down the amendment to the IT Rules, 2023 made through Rule 3. He said the said rule is 'ultra vires' of the IT Act and the expressions 'fake, false or misleading' are 'vague' and the 'test of proportionality' is also not satisfied.

The Bombay High Court has ruled that the Central Government's Fact Check Unit rule is unconstitutional, citing its vagueness and potential chilling effect on free speech. The decision follows a split verdict in a previous hearing and may lead to a Supreme Court challenge.

The tiebreaker judge noted that the provisions empowered the government to decide what constitutes “false” or “fake” news without clear definitions

The Bombay High Court has struck down the Centre's amended IT rules that established a fact check unit to flag social media content about its function

The petitioners, satirist Kunal Kamra, Editors Guild of India, Association of Indian Magazines and the News Broadcasters & Digital Association had challenged the validity of the rules as being ultra vires or exceeding the provisions of the Information Technology Act,

7 months after division bench deadlock, third judge delivers deciding opinion, says terms like 'fake' and 'misleading' are 'vague'

The Bombay High Court struck down amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, which allowed the government to set up Fact Check Units to address false information.

The matter was referred to a third judge after a division bench of Justice Gautam Patel and Justice Neela Gokhale delivered a split verdict on January 31