“In my thinking, they are now the social media censor board rather than something like an Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC),” commented Nikhil Pahwa, Founder and Editor of MediaNama, while moderating a session on MeitY’s proposed amendments to the IT Rules. The amendments have the potential to expand the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s (MIB) reach beyond publishers to regular internet users if they post anything related to ‘news and current affairs’. Throughout the discussion, legal experts and members of the press condemned the way the IDC functions and explained why it raises concerns around free speech and privacy.
When IDC summoned a news content creator, I was summoned by MIB’s Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) for a thumbnail. The irony is that they didn’t even watch the whole video and summoned me to the hearing for a thumbnail,” said Ambuj Kumar, Editor of Lokhit India, a Delhi-based digital media company whose audience is largely on YouTube and Facebook. Kumar was describing his experience of receiving an IDC summons from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) in December 2025 during MediaNama’s discussion on IT Rules and the Future of Online Speech in India, held in Delhi on April 23.
On the vagueness and broadness of the term “matters”, Alaqshendra Singh, Associate Partner at TMT Law Practice, said: “The terms like ‘matters’ or ‘user’ are not defined. The distinction between a publisher and a user is not defined. What you’ve essentially done is remove the tier-1 and tier-2 processes, and it straight up goes to the IDC. The IDC has the liberty to make arbitrary decisions. In effect, what they’re trying to do is introduce a sweeping provision that gives them discretion to do whatever they deem fit, whether the subject is a publisher, an intermediary, or even a user.”
“Strengthening of Rule 14 to expand the scope and functioning of the Inter-Departmental Committee to consider matters beyond complaints, including those referred by the Ministry,” reads an excerpt from MeitY’s proposed draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021. You can read the full explainer here.
Alaqshendra was referring to the following three-tier mechanism under Part III of the IT Rules:
- Self-regulation by the publishers;
- Self-regulation by the self-regulating bodies of the publishers;
- Oversight mechanism by the Central Government.
“…an oversight mechanism to control the media by the government may rob the media of its independence and the fourth pillar, so to say, of democracy may not at all be there,” said Madras high court in 2021 while upholding Bombay HC’s interim stay on the government’s oversight mechanism.
IDC — the judge, jury, and executioner: “The IDC itself is a problem because it is the executive acting as the jury, the judge, and the executioner. Then, on top of that, they have the power to suo motu, without a complaint, take up…
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