SC Asks Government To File Affidavit About The Status of Intermediary Guidelines In Facebook Transfer Plea Matter

The Supreme Court has asked the central government to file an affidavit about the status of intermediary guidelines and give definite timelines on them in the Facebook transfer petition matter.

The court has adjourned the hearing for October 22.

The Supreme Court asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta to take instructions in the matter and stated that user privacy needs to be maintained and illegal activities have to be prevented in the interest of sovereignty and national security.

It may be recalled that in August, Facebook and WhatsApp had sought transfer of four similar petitions about linking social media accounts with Aadhaar from various high courts to the Supreme Court.

The Tamil Nadu government which had requested the Supreme Court to permit the Madras High Court to continue hearing the matter was represented by attorney general KK Venugopal.

The petition in the Madras High court was filed by Antony Clement Rubin in July 2018 seeking the linking of Aadhaar with social media user profiles for authentication of identity. Later, a division bench of the Madras High Court expanded the scope of the petition to include issues such as curbing

cybercrime and intermediary liability within the ambit of the legal proceedings.

Apar Gupta, executive director of the digital advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), which was a party in the Madras High Court matter stated that he is concerned about such complex and technical matters getting argued in court.

The present transfer petition of Facebook puts ordinary internet users at great disadvantage from instituting actions before local bodies and forums against big technology companies, he stated.