Read Time: 06 minutes

The Delhi High Court today rejected Twitter's plea seeking 8 weeks time to appoint a Regular Resident Grievance Redressal officer as per Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Twitter had filed a short note in the High Court today seeking 8 weeks time to appoint a regular Resident Grievance Redressal officer. It had further stated that an Interim Chief compliance officer has been appointed on July 6, 2021 and the appointment of an Interim Grievance officer will be made by July 11. Further Interim contact nodal officer will be appointed within 2 weeks. Twitter submitted that they have bona fide intentions to fully comply with the Rules, as long as there is no stay. 

The single Judge bench of Justice Rekha Palli on perusal of the note did not appreciate that the word "interim" was used for the three officers appointed. 

The Court has directed the Chief Compliance Officer to file an affidavit in two weeks but clarified that scanned copies of affidavits of persons being appointed shall be filed in two days.

the Court further clarified that it was not granting interim protection to Twitter and it will be open for Centre to take action against it in case of any breach of the Rules.

The Court accordingly listed the matter for next hearing on July 28.

In the previous hearing Justice Rekha Palli observed that on  May 31, 2021, Twitter had said that it had already appointed a resident grievance officer after which the court asked it to file an affidavit disclosing the same.

Later when the affidavit was filed, it was found that Twitter had appointed only an interim resident grievance officer which according to Justice Palli's Knowledge had resigned and as on date there was no resident grievance officer. 

The Court had then directed Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya appearing for Twitter to seek instructions in a day as to when is twitter going to comply with the rules.

The Case pertains to a plea filed by Advocate Amit Acharya  alleging that Twitter has not complied with the Centre’s IT Rules to appoint a resident grievance officer, seeking directions to the social media platform to comply with the rules

The petitioner has stated that the Information Technology Rules came into effect from February 25 and the Centre had given three months to every social media intermediary, including Twitter, to comply with them.

The petitioner stated that he came to know about the alleged non-compliance when he tried to lodge a complaint against a couple of tweets.

 

Case Title: Amit Acharya vs Union of India and Ors

 

Also Read: Twitter Seeks 8 weeks Time to appoint Regular Resident Grievance Redressal Officer in compliance with the New It Rules before Delhi High Court  https://lawbeat.in/news-updates/breaking-twitter-seeks-8-weeks-time-app…