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IT Act: Delhi Police gets nod to issue ‘takedown orders’

By, New Delhi
Jan 09, 2025 09:31 AM IST

HT had reported in February 2024 that the provision is rife with legal ambiguity about who can send valid takedown notices.

Lieutenant governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena empowered at least 23 senior Delhi Police officers to issue “takedown orders” to social media companies and other intermediaries in order to remove illegal content the Information Technology Act, according to a gazette notification issued on December 26.

Delhi Police Headquarters. (HT File Photo)
Delhi Police Headquarters. (HT File Photo)

Delhi Police has been designated as the “nodal agency” of the NCT of Delhi to perform these functions, the notification states.

Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act states that intermediaries (such as Facebook, YouTube, Jio, Cloudflare) can be held liable for third party content if they fail to remove content despite being informed by the “appropriate” government or “its agency”.

This is one of the very few gazette notifications under this provision that empower so many officials to issue takedown orders.

While the Union home ministry has designated the entirety of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under this provision, others such as the defence ministry, the directorate general of GST intelligence (DGGI) and health ministry have notified only one official.

According to the notification issued by the Delhi home department in the Delhi Gazette on December 26, 2024, the LG has notified the DCPs of districts, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), Economic Offences Wing, crime, special cell, special branch, Indira Gandhi International Airport, railways and Metro to issue “take down notice pertaining to cases reported in their respective jurisdiction and to notify the instances of information, data or communication link residing in or connected to a computer resource controlled by the intermediary being used to commit the unlawful act”.

In addition, the joint commissioner of police, IFSO, Special Cell will act as the state nodal officer and will be assisted by the DCP IFSO who has been designated as the assistant state nodal officer.

“Earlier, we issued notices from officers’ official email addresses under Section 79(3)(b) and social media intermediaries complied. As per the circular given by home ministry recently, nodal officers have been appointed in many states/UTs, including Delhi,” Rajneesh Gupta, joint commissioner, IFSO, said.

HT had reported in February 2024 that the provision is rife with legal ambiguity about who can send valid takedown notices under this provision and if the sending agency needs to be specifically notified in the official gazette.

Pavit Singh Katoch, general counsel at Inshorts, explained that Section 79(3)(b), read along with rule 3(1)(d) of IT Rules, means that the notification of the “authorised” agency must be made in the official gazette.

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