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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

09/09/22 05:15 AM IST

SC voices concern over people getting booked under scrapped Section 66A of IT Act

In News 
  • Calling a “matter of serious concern” the registration of FIRs under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act it had scrapped in 2015, The Supreme Court asked the chief secretaries of states concerned to take back the cases within three weeks.
  • The court struck down the provision as unconstitutional and a violation of free speech in 2015 in the Shreya Singhal Case.
Section 66A of IT Act 
  • It empowered police to make arrests over what policemen, in terms of their subjective discretion, could construe as “offensive” or “menacing” or for the purposes of causing annoyance, inconvenience, etc.
  • It prescribed the punishment for sending messages through a computer or any other communication device like a mobile phone or a tablet, and a conviction could fetch a maximum of three years in jail.
Issues 
  • The court observed that the weakness of Section 66A lay in the fact that it had created an offence on the basis of undefined actions: such as causing “inconvenience, danger, obstruction and insult”, which do not fall among the exceptions granted under Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of speech.
  • The court also observed that the challenge was to identify where to draw the line. Traditionally, it has been drawn at incitement while terms like obstruction and insult remain subjective.
  • In addition, the court had noted that Section 66A did not have procedural safeguards like other sections of the law with similar aims, such as the need to obtain the concurrence of the Centre before action can be taken.
  • Local authorities could proceed autonomously, literally on the whim of their political masters.
  • The Court did not strike down two other provisions- sections 69A and 79 of the IT Act – and said that they can remain enforced with certain restrictions.
  • Section 69A provides power to issue directions to block public access of any information through any computer resource and Sec 79 provides for exemption from liability of intermediary in certain cases.
  • Section 66A was contrary to both Articles 19 (free speech) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution
  • Right to know is the species of the right to speech and expression provided by the Article 19(1) (a) of the constitution of India.
Source- The Hindu 

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