The top court had on August 20 issued notice to the Centre and social media sites on the plea by Facebook. (Photo: ANI/File

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to tell if the Information Technology Rules, 2018, for making social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Google and Youtube — to comply with Indian laws would be in place in a “very near future” or they are still in the realm of conjuncture.

The rules in question are Information Technology Intermediaries Guide-lines (Amendment) Rules, 2018.

The draft of the said rules was put in public domain in December 2018 but it is yet to be notified

The amended rules seeks a social media platform having more than 50 lakh users in India to be a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956; have a permanent registered office in India; and appoint a nodal person of contact for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies.

The poser from the bench of Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose on the framing of the rules for regulating the social media platforms came in the course of the hearing of a plea by Facebook seeking the transfer of cases before different high courts, including the Madras high court to the top court.

Facebook has moved the top court seeking the transfer of four cases pending before three high courts — Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh — on the linking of Aadhaar with the profile of the users of social media websites and other issues.

The top court had on August 20 issued notice to the Centre and social media sites on the plea by Facebook. While issuing notice, the top court had said that the Madras high court would continue with the hearing of the plea before it but restrained it from passing any final order.

At the outset of the hearing on Friday, Justice Gupta said there were two questions before them — whether Rules for making social media platforms accountable to domestic laws are going to be framed in “very near future” or they are still in the realm of conjecture.

Otherwise, Justice Gupta said they would decide whether the matter before the Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh high courts be transferred to the Supreme Court or let these high courts decide the issues before them.

In the earlier hearing on the matter, the top court has underlined the need to strike a balance between right to privacy and under what circumstance information about a person can be given and to whom to be given.

The Madras high court while “effectively abandoning” the prayer for linking of social media plat forms with Aadhaar — in the light of top court’s verdict upholding the right to privacy as fundamental right — expanded the scope of the matter before it to include sharing of information for the prevention and detection of crimes, investigation, tracing the originator of fake news, and mob violence in the state,   

It said that the matter before the Bombay and Madhya Pradesh High Court was at nascent stages where in even the notices have not been issued.  

Either the matters before the Bombay and Madhya Pradesh High Courts may be transferred to Madras High court where all matters could be decided together, or in alternate the proceedings before two High Courts may be stayed.