Page 2 - It Act

Misleading information has potential to fan separatist push: Central govt

False and misleading information has the potential to fan separatist movements and intensify social and political conflict, the Central government told Bombay High Court on Friday while responding to stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra's petition challenging an amendment to the Information Technology Rules. Citing a study, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), further said false news travelled six times faster than the truth, necessitating the 2023 amendment to the IT Rules. It, however, said that the impending fact check unit may only direct removal of false or misleading information pertaining to government policies and programmes, and not any satire or artist impression. Kamra, in his petition, claimed that the new rules could potentially lead to his content being arbitrarily blocked or his social media accounts being suspended or deactivated, thus harming him professionally. The stand-up comedian has sought the court to declare the amended rules as ...

No penalty under 271C for belated remittance of TDS after deduction: SC

The Supreme Court Monday held that no penalty shall be leviable under section 271C of the Income Tax Act over mere belated remittance of the tax deducted at source (TDS) after its deduction by the assessee concerned. The top court noted that section 271C of the Act deals with penalty for failure to deduct TDS. It said as per settled position of law, the penal provisions are required to be construed strictly and literally and as per the cardinal principle of interpretation of statute and more particularly, the penal provision, "the penal provisions are required to be read as they are." "Nothing is to be added or nothing is to be taken out of the penal provision. Therefore, on plain reading of section 271C of the Act, 1961, there shall not be penalty leviable on belated remittance of the TDS after the same is deducted by the assessee," a bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said. It said section 271C of the Income Tax Act is quite categoric and its scope and extent of applicat

Self-regulating body to work at arm's length from gaming industry: IT min

Rajeev Chandrasekhar added that many of the burning issues around online user harm, safety and trust, safeguarding children from addictive intermediaries or platforms will be addressed

Laws and order

Decriminalisation will improve business environment

India's requests to Meta for user data up slightly at 55,497 in H1 of 2022

Requests from governments across the globe for user data were up 10.5% to 237,414

Laid off? Seek advice before claiming tax exemption on severance pay

You can claim only if the payout is voluntary and you have documentary proof to this effect

Tax authorities want IT professionals to declare income from 'moonlighting'

The concerns from tax authorities have come at a time when there is an ongoing debate on how far 'moonlighting' by employees can be allowed.

Reasons to block must be recorded, communicated to users: Twitter to HC

The high court was hearing the plea challenging the blocking of 39 URLs by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2021

Govt to set up social media grievance appellate committees within 3 months

The committees will be established with the aim of providing users of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter with an alternative dispute resolution method

Gifts received from non-relatives of above Rs 50,000 a year are taxable

Gifts from employer become taxable once their value exceeds Rs 5,000; bonus is also taxable

Govt not empowered to issue orders to block accounts: Twitter to HC

Council for microblogging site emphasises that Section 69A (power to intercept electronic communication) of IT Act does not spell out mass blocking of accounts

No citizen can be prosecuted under Section 66A IT Act: Supreme Court

The section relating to restrictions on online speech was declared unconstitutional on grounds of violating the freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.

No citizen can be prosecuted under scrapped section 66A of IT Act: SC

The Supreme Court Wednesday directed no citizen can be prosecuted under section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which it had scrapped way back in 2015. Under the annulled section, a person posting offensive content could be imprisoned for up to three years and also fined. Underlining that liberty of thought and expression is of "cardinal" significance, the top court had on March 24, 2015 done away with the provision, saying "the public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A of the Information Technology Act". A bench headed by Chief Justice U U Lalit said in all cases where citizens are facing prosecution for alleged violation of section 66-A of the Act, the reference and reliance upon the said provision shall stand deleted. "We direct all Director General of Police as well as Home Secretaries of the states and competent officers in Union Territories to instruct the entire police force in their respective states/Union Territories not to register any compla

WhatsApp bans 2.3 mn bad accounts in India as new PDP Bill takes shape

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Saturday said it banned over 23 lakh accounts in India in the month of August in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021

50-60% of tweets asked by govt to be blocked are 'innocuous': Twitter to HC

The High Court of Karnataka on Monday heard a petition by microblogging platform Twitter against the Central government's orders asking it to block some accounts, URLs and tweets. Twitter had challenged the orders on grounds of violation of freedom of speech and the authorities not issuing notice to the alleged violators before asking Twitter to take down content. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had on September 1 filed a 101-page statement of objection to Twitter's petition. Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Twitter on Monday online, argued the company was following the rules laid out in the Information Technology Act. He contended that Twitter as a platform was affected by the Centre asking it to take down accounts without issuing notice to the alleged violators. The Centre was asking for wholesale blocking of accounts which will affect its business, according to him. He said several prominent persons have accounts on Twitter. Another .

WhatsApp takes down 2.4 million bad accounts in India in July: Report

Of the accounts barred, 1.42 million were "proactively banned," before any reports from users

TMS Ep249: Q1 GDP estimates, EV adoption, RIL stock, Sec-194R of IT Act

What do Q1 GDP estimates say about the economy? How will EV adoption affect auto component makers? When will RIL stock hit the Rs 3,500 mark? Why Sec-194R of IT Act has confused people? Answers here

TDS on benefits: Section 194R of the I-T Act has confused people

Sec 194R of the IT Act, 1961, mandates a person giving any benefit to another person to deduct 10% of the value of the benefit at source. It has created confusion as a similar section is already there

Sometimes, tax is payable on deemed income from unoccupied house

A house owner can claim only up to two properties as self-occupied

MeitY may stick with a govt-backed GAC for social media content issues

The IT rules, 2021, require significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs) appoint a resident grievance officer to decide on content-related complaints