Deepali Kalia –
Published on August 06, 2021, 07:00 IST
Twitter informed the Delhi High Court that on August 4 it had made permanent appointments to the posts of Resident Grievance Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Nodal Contact Person in compliance with the new IT Rules.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice Rekha Palli was hearing a plea filed by Amit Acharya, a practising advocate against Twitter India and Twitter Inc. for not complying with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021).
The petition stated that Twitter was in noncompliance with IT Rules 2021 as it had not appointed a Resident Grievance Officer (RGO), Nodal Contact Officer (NCO) and Chief Compliance Officer (CCO).
Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya who was appearing on behalf of Twitter informed the Court that Vinay Prakash has been appointed as the permanent Resident Grievance Officer and Chief Compliance Officer and Shahin Komath has been appointed as the Nodal Contact Officer.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma to Justice Pellai’s question about whether Twitter has complied with the IT Rules stated that, “Seemingly so, your lordship. But we have to confirm. We will take instructions.”
The matter was then adjourned by the Court to August 10.
Earlier, the Court had strongly objected to affidavits filed by Twitter stating that it had appointed CCO and RGO as ‘contingent workers’.
Consequently, one last opportunity was given by the Court to Twitter to file ‘better’ affidavits within the duration of a week stating details of the appointments and the reason why NCO had not been appointed yet.
Further, Twitter had informed the Delhi High Court that it will by 11 July, file its first compliance report compatible with 2021 IT Rules which will cover the time period between 26th May 2021 to 25th June 2021.
Twitter had also submitted that although it was striving to comply with 2021 Rules, it did still reserve the right to challenge the legality and validity of the Rules.