Social media intermediary X (formerly Twitter) moved the Gujarat High Court on Friday (August 14) seeking modification of a direction to onboard Centre's SAHYOG Portal. 

The application has been filed in a pending PIL raising concerns about the “sharp and alarming rise” in deepfake and AI-generated content circulating on digital and social media platforms. 

On April 10 the court had asked the intermediaries to respond to affidavits filed by the State and Central governments in respect of practical implementation of the legislative framework to ensure strict compliance of due diligence obligations under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 as amended by the Amendment Rules, 2026.

The court had also asked the intermediaries to ensure that they onboard the Centre's SAHYOG Portal for timely action and better coordination with law enforcement agencies.

When the matter was taken up today, a division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice DN Ray asked what was the position as of now. 

The counsel for the petitioner advocate Amit Panchal submitted that the private respondents-social media intermediaries were represented but were yet to respond to the PIL. Meanwhile, Central Government had already filed a response.

The counsel for X then submitted that it had filed an application seeking modification of the April 10 order insofar as it directs social media intermediaries to onboard the SAHYOG Portal. 

He also submitted that its reply is in transit from the USA, and it will be filed shortly. He also said that issue in the April 10 order pertains to Section 79(3)(b) IT Act and the SAHYOG portal. 

"It has come to my attention that the Union has moved transfer petition before Supreme Court because there are petitions pending. One of our appeals before the Karnataka High Court division bench is pending which raised similar issues. Supreme Court has issued notice on transfer petition and in respect of those matters, nothing to do with this matter, it has stayed the proceedings in one or two of them," the counsel said adding that since the subject matter is overlapping he was placing the same before the court as a matter of propriety. 

For context, the Supreme Court last month stayed proceedings in cases pending before the Karnataka and Bombay High Courts challenging the constitutional validity of the 'Sahyog Portal' and the powers under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 for take down of online content.

The apex court passed the order while hearing transfer petitions filed by the Union government. The Centre has sought the transfer to the Supreme Court of four proceedings pending before the Karnataka and Bombay High Courts. 

The matters include the petition filed by X Corp (formerly Twitter), and DigiPub News Foundation (organisation of digital news portals) in the Karnataka High Court. Also, the petitions filed by Kunal Kamra and Senior Advocate Haresh Jagtiani in the Bombay High Court are also stayed.

The high court asked X to file its response to the plea and said that it will hear the platform on its modification application. 

Meanwhile senior advocate Arvind Datar appeared for Meta and submitted that the platform will file a response in two weeks. Google LLC submitted that it had filed an application for substitution of Google LLC in place of Google which was allowed by the court. 

The court noted that advocates had put in appearance for the respondents-Meta, Google LLC, X, Reddit and Scribd–and directed them to file their response by the next date of hearing. 

The matter is listed on September 11. 

Case title: VIKAS VIJAY NAIR v/s STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS.

X THROUGH ITS AUTHORIZED SIGNATORY v/s  VIKAS VIJAY NAIR & ORS.

R/WRIT PETITION (PIL) (WRIT PETITION (PIL)) NO. 9 of 2026, CA/1/2026