INSTITUTE OF LAW, NIRMA UNIVERSITY, MOOT COURT

INTRA MURALS 2023-2024

MOOT PROBLEM

Background:
1. Republic of Ravis is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic and republic country
situated in the South Asian region. It is a culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse
country with approximately 80% Hindus, 15% Muslims and the remaining 5% from other
minorities. It was an erstwhile British colony and gained independence from Britain in
1947, ending three hundred years of colonial rule with the creation of two independent
nations: Republic of Ravis and Republic of Freman.

2. According to a recently conducted census by Republic of Ravis, it has been reported that
there are about 30.4 million Dinkoist in Republic of Ravis, making up 2.7 percent of the
country’s population. The majority of Dinkoist, about 20 million, live in the northern
state of Kaziranga where they make up about 60 percent of the Kaziranga’s population.

Demand for creation of an independent Dinkoist State:

3. Following the partition in 1947 and creation of Republic of Ravis, a movement had
emerged which called for the establishment of a Dinkoi-speaking autonomous Dinkoist
State, however no name was given for the proposed Dinkoist State. Most of the people
who participated in the movement were in favour of creating an independent Dinkoist
State carved out of Republic of Ravis. However, the idea of this independent Dinkoist
State along with the movement died down and was pushed forward.

4. Recently, the same movement with an objective of creating an independent Dinkoist State
developed momentum among the Dinkoist diaspora in Republic of Caladan, which is
also home to the largest national Dinkoist proportion in the world (2.1%), and also has
the second-largest Dinkoist population in the world, after of Republic of Ravis.

5. Republic of Ravis and Republic of Caladan have long maintained a bilateral relationship
built on shared values, including democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. However,
tensions have arisen recently due to the above movement. Recently, it has been reported
that there has been a notable increase in hate crimes targeting people of Ravisian descent
in Republic of Caladan. Out of all the instances reported, it was found that a Ravisian
student, Harman Pitloo was gunned down in front of a subway station in one of the cities
 of Republic of Caladan. More recently, another Ravisian student, was shot in a
shootingrampage that resulted in two more deaths in the region.

Social Media Intermediaries:

6. Quiter Inc. runs an online social networking and micro-blogging service –‘Quiter’. It has
more than 200 million active users across the country and claims to serve the public
conversation through Quiter. In the last decade, Quiter has emerged as one of the largest
media of communication across the world including Republic of Ravis.

7. HowsApp Inc., was founded in early 2000s and has built its service on a foundation of
user privacy and security. It is dedicated to creating a private and secure space where
users can freely communicate. Consistent with these principles of privacy and security,
it offers its users throughout the world, including over 400 million users in Republic of
Ravis, a state-of-the-art end-to-end encrypted messaging and calling service, HowsApp.
This end-to-end encryption protocol is designed to prevent third parties and HowsApp
from having plaintext access to messages or calls.

Misuse of Social Media Intermediaries:

8. The Government of Republic of Ravis has released a press note alleging that the majority
of Dinkoist do not support separatism. Republic of Ravis is notably concerned about the
support for the movement in Republic of Caladan, viewing it as a threat to its territorial
integrity and national security. Amidst rising tensions, it was found that a large number
of tweets on Quiter and text messages on HowsApp were spreading anti- Republic of
Ravisian propaganda, provocative content and misinformation, escalating the tensions
further in Republic of Ravis. A large number of Quiter accounts was allegedly reported
to be peddling secessionism and idea of creating an independent Dinkoist State.

9. The misuse of the social media platform has irked the Government of Republic of Ravis
who believes that these accounts on Quiter are operated from those who are backed by
Republic of Caladan and operating from foreign territories. The Government of Republic
of Ravis believes that the said Quiter accounts have the potential to cause a threat to
public order and sovereignty of the state.

10. In order to curb the above menace and reduce the amplification of the misinformation,
Government of Republic of Ravis in 2020 released an office memorandum under Section
69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (‘IT Act’) directing Quiter to permanently
 remove all those accounts which are spreading anti- Republic of Ravis propaganda
and making false, intimidatory and provocative tweets (“Office Memorandum-I”).

11. On similar lines, Government of Republic of Ravis released an Office Memorandum in

2020 under Section 69A of the IT Act directing HowsApp to break its encryption and
reveal the identities of people that have sent messages through the platform peddling
secessionism and idea of creating an independent Dinkoist State (“Office
Memorandum-II”).

12. However, Quiter and HowsApp refused to comply with the directions passed by Republic
of Ravis on the ground that Section 69A of the IT Act does not encompass such powers
with the Government of Republic of Ravis.

Introduction of IT Rules 2021:

13. In the above backdrop, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology,
Republic of Ravis in and around May 2021, issued the Information Technology
(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (‘IT Rules 2021’).
These rules direct social media intermediaries to remove any news/texts related to the
‘business of the Government of Republic of Ravis that was deemed ‘provocative, false,
or misleading’ by a fact-checking unit established by the Government of Republic of
Ravis. The IT Rules 2021 further directed that social media intermediaries shall enable
the identification of the first originator of the information in Republic of Ravis on their
messaging services upon court order or an order under Section 69 of the IT Act.

Challenge to IT Rules 2021:

14. After the IT Rules 2021 were implemented for social media intermediaries, HowsApp in
April 2023 filed a Writ Petition under Article 226 of Constitution of Republic of Ravis
before the High Court of Kemp challenging the validity of IT Rules 2021 on the grounds
that it violates the fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech and expression
guaranteed under Articles 19 by enabling the identification of the first originator of the
information in Republic of Ravis and Article 21 of the Constitution of Republic of Ravis
of more than 400 million HowsApp users in Ravis and is also ultra vires, the IT Act.

15. Quiter also, in May 2023 filed a Writ Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of
Republic of Ravis before High Court of Kemp challenging the vires of IT Rules 2021
 along with the Office Memorandum-I on the ground that it gives the government the
power to demand takedowns of any content deemed objectionable and dilutes
Quiter’s identity of being a platform that welcomes all manner of political debate.

16. Noting that the both the writ petitions were filed after 2 years of the introduction of the
IT Rules 2021, the High Court of Kemp dismissed them without a speaking order.
Aggrieved by this, Quiter and HowsApp independently moved a writ petition under
Article 32 of the Constitution of Republic of Ravis challenging the vires of IT Rules 2021
on same grounds as before High Court.

17. While the aforesaid writ petitions were filed before the Supreme Court of Ravis and kept
pending, an independent and separate writ petition was also pending before the Supreme
Court of Ravis. The writ petition was filed by an entity called Dominian, an intermediary
under the IT Act against an order of Ld. Additional Session Judge (“ASJ”), District Court
of Tornado (“Order”) during the proceedings of a trial relating to commission of an
offence under Ravisian Penal Code, 1860 and Arms Act, 1959 by an accused called
Mankad.

18. The proceedings of a trial were related to a case where the allegation against the accused
is that on April 5, 2023, the accused voluntarily caused simple injuries on a victim with
sharp edged weapon i.e. knife in contravention of section 7 of Arms Act 1959 by
exposing the same in public. It was revealed during the trial, that the said knife was
purchased by the accused from the platform of Dominian.

19. While the trial was ongoing, the Police after completing the investigation, submitted the
chargesheet naming Mankad as accused and did not name Dominian as an accused. By
way of the Order, the Ld. ASJ directed police to investigate the role of Dominian in the
commission of the offence and add its name to the chargesheet. Subsequently, the police
started issuing notices under Section 41A and 91 of Criminal Procedure Code (“CrPC”)
to the officials of Dominian to appear before them on daily basis.

20. Aggrieved by the Order, Dominian filed a writ petition seeking quashing of the order of
Ld. ASJ, inter alia, on the ground that it cannot be held to be an accused as it had no role
in the commission of offence since it is an e-commerce platform that provides access to
buyers and sellers through their website, where they meet and interact to execute
purchase and sale transactions and thus it is exempted from any liability under Section
 79(2)(c) of IT Act. The State filed its reply challenging the maintainability of the writ
petition and argued that no writ petition could have been filed against the order of the
Ld.ASJ.

21. The Supreme Court of Ravis clubbed all the three writ petitions together and directed
that all of them will be heard by it while exercising its jurisdiction under Article(s) 32
and 142 of the Constitution of Republic of Ravis. Pleadings are complete, and the matter
has been posted for hearing before a regular bench of Republic of Ravis.

NOTE:
a) Participants are advised to refer to IT Rules 2021 while assuming that ‘fact checking
unit’ was established under the same.
b) District of Tornado is a District in Republic of Ravis.
c) Dinkoist is a religion just like Hindus and Muslims in Republic of Ravis.
d) Participants are required to restrict the number of Issues to 3 (three).

DISCLAIMER

a) This Moot Proposition is purely a work of fiction and resemblance to any such
incidence shall be purely co-incidental.
b) This Moot Proposition is purely intended for educational purpose.
c) Constitution of Republic of Ravis is analogous to Constitution of India and all laws in
force in Republic of Ravis are pari materia to the laws in force in India.
d) The Supreme Courts of Republic of Ravis function in the same manner like the
Supreme Court of India.
e) Participants stand advised to devise a “litigation strategy” and frame relevant issues for
adjudication of the above writ petitions.