The Kerala High Court on Monday (October 26) sought the responses of the Centre and the State on whether any orders were issued to Meta Platforms for blocking the Facebook page of independent Malayalam digital media organisation "NoCap".

Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. today admitted the petition preferred by journalist Hyder Ali K., the Chief Editor of NoCap, and, granted time to the State and Central government counsels to get instructions.

Notice was issued to Meta by speed post. The case is posted to November 5 (Thursday) for further consideration.

According to the plea, NoCap has been operating as a digital news platform offering unique takes on global, national and local issues since its establishment in November 2023. It is stated that the organisation, being an independent platform, derives its source of revenue and operational expenses through the monetisation programmes on social media platforms.

It is further stated that the petitioner received an in-app notification from NoCap's Facebook on September 28 that its content in India is restricted pursuant to a notice from the Government of India/Law Enforcement under Section 79(3) (b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Challenging the order to block the page in India, the plea has been preferred seeking interference of the High Court:

"NoCap's Facebook Page has been blocked without publication of the Impugned Order or its disclosure to the Petitioner and his team, whose fundamental rights have been infringed by it. Moreover, the Petitioner was not afforded an opportunity to be heard before the NoCap's Facebook Page was blocked. This action unequivocally violates due process and the principles of natural justice, and therefore, the Impugned Order is therefore issued through arbitrary process, and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution."

The petitioner prays for a direction to set aside the order leading to the blocking of NoCap's facebook page and to restore the same.

As a general relief, he also seeks for an order declaring that the orders issued as per Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act r/w Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 have to be communicated to the user whose content is removed/disabled by the order.

The interim reliefs sought are for directions to produce the order blocking the facebook page, to stay the operation of the order and to reinstate the page.

The petition is moved by Advocates Prasanth Sugathan, Varsha Bhaskar and Malavika K.