Bengaluru, 3 April

High Court on Thursday declined to grant interim relief to X Corp on its plea against the Central government’s mandatory onboarding requirement for its 'Sahyog' portal. It observed that there is no reason for the company to be apprehensive of any coercive action at this juncture.

Justice M Nagaprasanna heard X Corp’s petition against the government’s directive requiring it to join the Sahyog portal—a platform facilitating content-blocking orders for social media and internet intermediaries.

The court also said X Corp has been granted the liberty to seek protection if any action was taken against it.

X Corp has argued that the mechanism lacks the legal safeguards outlined under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. Instead, the government has based its blocking orders on Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, a provision that limits intermediary protections under certain conditions, it contended.

Senior Advocate KG Raghavan, representing X Corp, contended that the Supreme Court upheld the validity of Section 69A in the Shreya Singhal case because of its inbuilt safeguards.

He sought to know whether the government could bypass these protections by invoking Section 79(3)(b) instead. The counsel further prayed to the court to restrain the government from taking coercive action against X Corp.

He emphasised that X Corp was not challenging Indian laws, but rather the way Section 79(3)(b) was being used.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aravind Kamath, representing the Centre, asserted that all intermediaries must comply with Indian laws, including content moderation requirements.

The court pointed to the Centre’s assurance that X Corp need not fear any coercive action at this stage.

The case has now been posted for hearing on 24 April.