Flood row: Didi blocks entry of J’khand trucks Trucks seen in a long queue on National Highway 19 in Dhanbad after the West Bengal-Jharkhand border sealed by the Mamata Banerjee government. The heavy vehicles are stuck at the border after the Bengal government restricted their entry in protest against the release of water from two dams in the neighbouring state, which resulted in flooding of parts of Bengal | PTI | P8 NAGAPATTINAM l SATURday l SEPTEMBER 21, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Bombay High Court quashes amended IT rules They violate Article 14 & 19 of Constitution, says HC’s tie-breaker judge A S Chandurkar E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai Petitioners Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, Editors Guild of India, News Broadcast and Digital Association, and Association of Indian Magazines had filed petitions Govt’s view The Centre told HC in July that the right to know factually correct info and the right to not be misled were equally important as the right to freedom of speech and expression tHE Bombay High Court on Friday struck down the amended Information Technology Rules, specifically Rule 3, which empowered the Centre to form fact checking units (FCUs) to deal with ‘fake, false, or misleading’ content about the government on social media and online platforms. The ‘tiebreaker’ verdict was delivered by Justice A S Chandurkar. The judge held that the amended rules violated several constitutional provisions, including Article 14 (right to equality), Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and Article 19(1)(g) (freedom to practice any profession). He also held that Rule 3(1)(b) (5)—the provision dealing with establishment of FCUs—was ultra vires to the Constitution. The case was referred to Justice Chandurkar following a split verdict in the matter by a bench of Justices G S Patel and Neela Gokhale in January While Justice Patel struck down Rule 3 cit. ing concerns about the potential for censorship, Justice Gokhale upheld Rule 3. The division bench also differed on whether a stay should be granted to the setting up of the FCU. Justice Patel said the FCU should not be notified until the matter was heard by a third judge, while Justice Gokhale said it could be notified. Following this, High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyay appointed Justice Chandurkar to provide a tie-breaking opinion on the case. In an interim order in March, Justice Chandurkar refused to grant any stay Consequently the Centre . , notified the FCU. However, the Supreme Court stayed the notification pending disposal of the petitions in the HC, noting that the petitions raise serious constitutional questions. Maha BJP will hit a century, says Fadnavis E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday expressed confidence in the BJP winning 100 seats on its own in the forthcoming assembly elections in November. He attributed his confidence to the slew of development projects his gover nment initiated across the state. Fadnavis was speaking at the first edition of Ihe New Indian Express’ Mumbai Dialogue — a platform for exchange of ideas on politics, economy and other social issues — in Mumbai. However, Opposition leadrs did not share Fadnavis’ optimism. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray shared his express read First state conference of TVK to be held on Oct 27 Chennai: Actor and Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay on Friday said that his party’s first state conference will be held on October 27 at V Salai village near Vikravandi | P4 Sexual harassment of 5 girls, counsellor arrested Nagapattinam: A psychological counsellor was held on Friday under the Pocso Act for sexually harassing five girl students of a government children’s home in Nagapattinam | P4 From left: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray participating in the first edition of Ihe New Indian Express’ Mumbai Dialogue concern over Maharashtra losing several development and jobgenerating projects to Gujarat during the current regime. The event was also attended by Congress MLA and Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, Rajya Sabha member of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) Milind Deora and film director Kiran Rao. Chennithala listed the failures of the Maharashtra government and expressed confidence that the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) would come to power in the state. The counterpoint came from Milind Deora who said during the MVA’s rule, infra- structure development of Mumbai city came to a standstill due to internal politics. In contrast, under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, infrastructure projects like coastal road, Atal Sethu and airport at Navi Mumbai came up and got completed, he said. Two sessions on economy, banking and equity markets discussed the challenges ahead, particularly those on job creation. “Creating jobs is the most critical aspect to sustain the current growth rate, which will lead to the country becoming a middle income economy said banker Keki M ,” Mistry. The for mer Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of HDFCsaid while the economy is on a solid footing growing at over 7%, to sustain this level of growth “we need to create more jobs”. To a question on the controversies around the Sebi chairman, he said the country’s regulatory framework is extremely strong and robust. Devina Mehra, founder of First Global, said though share prices are at a record high, they are frothy only in certain pockets; so new investors have opportunities. TTD head backs Naidu; Jagan raps laddu politics E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Tirumala/Vijayawada The controversy surrounding the famous Tirupati laddu’s quality deepened on Friday with Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Executive Officer Shyamala Rao confirming that adulterated ghee was supplied by AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd, a Tamil Nadu-based firm, adding action has been taken to blacklist it. However, former chief minister and YSRC president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy rubbished the charges of adulteration, adding it was a diversionary tactic by his successor N Chandrababu Naidu. Shyamala Rao, who assumed charge as executive officer on June 16 this year, said five companies were supplying ghee to TTD at `320-`411 per kg. Since they were way below their cost of production, they set off warning bells. “After our warning, supplies from all except one were found to be good. We found four tankers of ghee from AR Dairy to be substandard. Samples from the four tankers were sent to Na- TN firm rejects allegations on ghee quality AR Dairy Food Pvt Limited in Dindigul, one of the ghee suppliers to TTD, denied the allegations and said ghee supplied to TTD was of high quality and it was sent along with lab reports. Meanwhile, the HR&CE department has said that the ghee used for making Palani panchamirtham is bought from Aavin and not from AR Dairy tional Dairy Development Board’s (NDDB) accredited lab CALF. It confirmed the low quality he explained. ,” On the political front, Jagan accused Naidu of playing with the sentiments of devotees to divert public attention from his failure to implement election promises even after completing 100 days in office. Explaining that there was no scope for using animals fat or adulterated ghee in Tirumala, he said procurement of ghee is a routine process that is being followed for decades.