The Delhi High Court (HC) has agreed to hear a plea filed by Foundation for Independent Journalism (FIJ), a non-profit organisation which runs The Wire, challenging the new rules regulating digital news portals. The court said it will hear the parties “at length” on April 16.

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This is the first challenge that has been issued to the IT rules that were recently notified by the government.

The Foundation's director and The Wire founding editor, MK Venu, and Dhanya Rajendran, Editor-in-Chief of The News Minute, are also petitioners in the case. The petition has also sought interim protection against any possible coercive action that could likely be taken under the new rules until the next hearing.

The HC has said that the petitioners may move the court if any such step is taken and has sought the government's response on the plea.

The government has formulated a 3-tier regulatory mechanism for online news portals. It gave powers to the executives to regulate, block the content.

Watch the accompanying video of CNBC-TV18’s Ashmit Kumar for more details.

(Edited by : Niral Sharma)