Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana high court has set aside an order issued by the Yamunanagar SP directing Meta Platforms Inc. to block the Facebook page of a local news outlet, calling the police action an arbitrary exercise of power.Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya directed the SP to instruct Meta to immediately restore the verified Facebook page of ‘Haryana 24 News Network Private Limited’, which had been blocked in India since Aug 21, while hearing a petition filed by the news outlet.The court held that the police failed to follow statutory procedure under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.The counsel for the petitioner, Namit Khurana and Gagan Budhiraja, contended that neither a notice had been issued to the company nor a copy of the intimation issued to Meta furnished. The company had been kept in dark about the exercise, causing business losses and adversely affecting its reputation, they said.The counsel said under the 2021 IT Rules, blocking orders can only be issued by an authorised govt officer not below the rank of deputy inspector general of police.The state counsel, additional advocate general, Bhupender Singh, submitted that one of the directors of the company, was an accused in a case registered under Section 308(2) of BNS at Yamunanagar on Aug 6. He had allegedly been continuously posting videos and sending messages through the Facebook page with an intent to intimidate the victim and witnesses in the case.Rejecting Singh’s argument that the SP was delegated such authority, the bench observed that no law allows such delegation.“The superintendent of police usurped the power not vested in him in issuing the said intimation in flagrant violation of statutory provisions; this is sheer highhandedness and arbitrary exercise of power,” Justice Dahiya held, declaring the order without jurisdiction.The HC also noted that rules required the govt to review such intimations every month to assess its necessity and proportionality but no such review had been carried out.Holding that the notice was without jurisdiction, the bench said it was not required to have been acted upon by Meta.The HC said the company was kept in the dark without being served a copy of the notice or given an opportunity to defend itself before Meta’s grievance redressal mechanism.Setting aside the Aug 21 notice, the bench directed that if the state the govt finds any information, data or communication link on the Facebook page prohibited under law, a copy of any fresh intimation must be furnished to the petitioner immediately after it is issued.
