Law Minister to withdraw PIL against constitution of Fact Check Unit

Minister for Energy Resources and Law R. Nirmal Kumar has decided to withdraw a public interest litigation petition filed by him in 2023, challenging the constitution of a Fact Check Unit (FCU) by the then Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government under the leadership of Iyan Karthikeyan.

The PIL petition has been listed under the caption ‘For Withdrawal’ before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan on Wednesday (June 10, 2026) since Mr. Karthikeyan had recently resigned from the post of Mission Director of the FCU.

Mr. Kumar had filed the case when he was a member of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). He had shifted allegiance to Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) in January 2025 and took charge as a Minister last month after the party assumed power in the State pursuant to the 2026 elections.

In his 2023 affidavit, Mr. Kumar had urged the High Court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional a Government Order issued on October 6, 2023 for the constitution of the FCU. He feared that the unit would end up curbing freedom of speech and expression on all forms of media including the social media.

“The illegal formation of the Fact Check Unit is a frontal attack on the freedom of speech of the citizens in general, and the choice of the persons to run it makes it an attempt to curb the opposition,” the affidavit filed by Mr. Kumar during his tenure as the Information Technology wing joint secretary of AIADMK read.

Highlighting that the Tamil Nadu police department had already constituted a social media monitoring cell to keep a tab on false messages being circulated in the medium with the intent of disturbing public peace and tranquillity, the petitioner had questioned the need for a FCU too in addition to police action.

He had also raised doubts regarding the competence of the State government to constitute the FCU in the light of the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which were also under challenge before the courts of law across the country.