New Delhi, Aug. 23 -- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) may move to separately notify a proposed rule that would require intermediaries to comply with the ministry's clarifications, advisories, directions, SOPs, codes of practice and guidelines, or risk legal action, a government official told HT. Rule 3(4) was among three key amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, published by the ministry for public consultation on March 30. A fourth amendment was added to the proposal on April 21. The official quoted above said that the move to separately notify the advisory requirement is aimed at ensuring compliance begins at the earliest. But a second reason was the pending discussions with the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) on two other proposed amendments - expanding the powers of the Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) under Rule 14(2), and bringing user-generated content related to news and current affairs, including community notes on X, under MIB's oversight through Rule 8(1). According to two people aware of the matter, at least three meetings between MeitY and MIB had been scheduled since May, but were subsequently cancelled. HT has reached out to MeitY and MIB but the ministries were not available for a response. Both the rules received significant pushback from the industry, arguing that intermediaries are already regulated under Section 79 of the IT Act and the amendments would create an additional layer of scrutiny. Rule 3(4) forms part of the due-diligence obligations under Section 79 of the IT Act, meaning intermediaries could lose their safe-harbour protection if they fail to comply with advisories....