The Supreme Court will not be making use of WhatsApp groups to share video conference links of the court hearings, the court registry said on Saturday, 27 February.
In a circular that was uploaded on the apex court’s official website, the registry said the said video conference links will be shared through registered email ids as well as by SMS on registered mobile numbers of advocates-on-record and party-in-persons.
Mentioning the reason of the development, the circular stated, “...due to new guidelines or regulations issued by Government of India pertaining to Social media Apps and OTT Platforms. In these circumstances and in partial modification of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) dated 04th July, 2020 for Ld. Advocate/Party-in-person for eFiling, Mentioning, Listing and Video Conferencing Hearing published on website.”
It further said that the said video conference links will be shared through the aforementioned ways with effect from Monday, 1 March.
Announcing new rules for social media companies and a code of ethics for OTT streaming platforms and digital news media, Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar, on Thursday, 25 February, said they “are empowering the ordinary users of social media” and aims to address “double standards” by platforms on moderating content.
The 30-page document, titled Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, defines social media companies, suggests a three-tier mechanism for regulation of all online media, which confers blocking powers to an inter-ministerial committee.
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