Bengaluru, Apr 3 (Reporter) The Karnataka High Court on Thursday refused to grant interim relief to social media giant X Corp in its plea challenging the central government's mandatory onboarding directive for the Sahyog portal. Justice M Nagaprasanna, while hearing the matter, observed that there was no immediate reason for X Corp to be apprehensive of coercive action by the government. The Court noted that liberty had already been granted to the company on March 17 to approach the Court in case of any such action. The Sahyog portal is a government platform used to issue orders for blocking online content. X Corp argued that these takedown orders do not follow the legal safeguards required under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Instead, the government is relying on Section 79(3)(b) of the Act, which X Corp believes is not the correct legal basis for such actions. Senior Advocate KG Raghavan, representing X Corp, argued that the Supreme Court had upheld Section 69A of the IT Act in the Shreya Singhal case because it includes procedural safeguards. He emphasised that even when blocking orders are issued without hearing the affected party (ex-parte), they must be reviewed later. However, he pointed out that this safeguard is missing when orders are issued under Section 79(3)(b). "The interim prayer is innocuous. It does not adversely affect any concerns expressed by the Union of India. We are not saying we won’t comply with the laws of this country; we only seek adherence to the codified framework under Section 69A," Raghavan submitted. X Corp maintains that it fully intends to comply with Indian laws, including those against offensive content and deepfakes. However, it opposes the invocation of Section 79(3)(b) as a standalone provision for content blocking. The Central government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aravind Kamath, argued against X Corp’s claims. The government has maintained that its directives align with the IT Act and that the concerns raised by X Corp are unwarranted. The court has posted the matter for final hearing on April 24...////...