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Informist, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court has stayed proceedings in different high courts on the challenge of the government's Sahyog portal, an online platform used to issue content take-down orders to intermediaries. The apex court issued notices to X Corp., comedian Kunal Kamra, and DigiPub News India Foundation on the government's plea to club the cases filed by them in a single court. It will take the government's plea on Monday and decide whether to club the cases in one high court or rule on the issue itself.

 

X Corp. has challenged the government's content blocking order under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and legality of Sahyog portal before the Karnataka High Court. Its single judge bench had upheld the government's move, while the division judge bench had issued notices to the government on X. Corp.'s appeal.

 

 

The social media company said it was "deeply concerned" by the single judge's order, which "will allow millions of police officers to issue arbitrary takedown orders" through a secretive online portal called Sahyog. This new regime has no basis in law, circumvents Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, violates previous Supreme Court rulings, and infringes upon Indian citizens' constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression, it said. The Sahyog portal enables officers to order removal of content based solely on allegations of "illegality" without judicial review or due process for the speakers and threatens platforms with criminal liability for non-compliance, it said. 

 

X has sought a declaration that Section 79(3)(b) of the 2000 Act does not give the Centre the authority to issue information blocking orders. It has sought a court declaration that the blocking orders can only be issued under Section 69A of the Act, read with the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. In addition, DigiPub News India, a collective of digital news publishers, along with journalist Abhinandan Sekhri had intervened in support of X Corp., arguing that it was journalists and news organisations whose speech was directly affected by secret takedown orders. 

 

Section 69A of the 2000 Act grants the government direct power to block online content under specific conditions and procedural safeguards while Section 79(3)(b) is an intermediary liability provision that by negating safe harbour provisions, forces intermediaries to remove unlawful content upon official notification. This provision has been used to bypass the safeguards of Section 69A, according to X Corp. The core difference is that Section 69A is an order-making power for blocking, whereas Section 79(3)(b) is a liability provision for intermediaries which, when invoked for removal, can be seen as an indirect blocking mechanism.

 

In the Bombay High Court, Kamra had challenged the constitutional validity of Sahyog portal, and the 2025 amendment to Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021, which requires intermediaries to remove flagged content within 36 hours. Kamra has argued that the portal enables takedowns without notice to the person who posted the content, or a hearing, in breach of natural justice and the free-speech guarantee under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution. The second case, filed by an advocate Haresh Jagtiani, is on a parallel challenge to the same portal and rules.   End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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