Centre to file objections to ‘X’ petition in Karnataka HC

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday adjourned to April 3, 2025, the hearing on the petition filed by Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, challenging the Union government’s “unlawful information blocking” regime without any protections/opportunity of hearing. 

Justice M Nagaprasanna adjourned the hearing after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, submitted that a statement of objections would be filed during the course of the day.  X has alleged that the Union government is attempting to circumvent the protections that exist under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, the Blocking Rules which have been upheld by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal case in 2015. It sought a declaration that Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act does not confer authority to issue information blocking orders.