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Freedom Of Speech Online: SC To Pronounce Verdict On Validity Of Sec 66A of IT Act

Freedom Of Speech Online: SC To Pronounce Verdict On Validity Of Sec 66A of IT Act
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NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court is set to pronounce its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging constitutional validity of certain sections of the cyber law including a provision under which a person can be arrested for allegedly posting "offensive" contents on websites, today.

A bench of justices J Chelameswar and R F Nariman had on February 26 reserved its judgement after Government concluded its arguments contending that section 66A of the Information Technology Act cannot be "quashed" merely because of the possibility of its "abuse".

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that the Government did not want to curtail the freedom of speech and expression at all which is enshrined in the Constitution, but the vast cyber world could not be allowed to remain unregulated.

However, the court had said that terms like 'illegal', 'grossly offensive' and 'menacing character' were vague expressions and these words were likely to be misunderstood and abused.

Some of the petitions seek setting aside of section 66A of the Information Technology Act which empowers police to arrest a person for allegedly posting offensive materials on social networking sites.

The first PIL on the issue was filed in 2012 by a law student Shreya Singhal, who sought amendment in Section 66A of the Act, after two girls -- Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan -- were arrested in Palghar in Thane district as one of them posted a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death and the other 'liked' it.

The apex court had on May 16, 2013, come out with an advisory that a person, accused of posting objectionable comments on social networking sites, cannot be arrested without police getting permission from senior officers like IG or DCP.

The direction had come in the wake of numerous complaints of harassment and arrests, sparking public outrage.

It had, however, refused to pass an interim order for a blanket ban on the arrest of such persons across the country.

Kudos to law student Shreya Singhal and her supportive mother for filing the #Sec66A case in SC when many were dithering from doing so

— Shivam Vij (@DilliDurAst) March 23, 2015

Pray 4 Tomorrow: I hope #SC will have the foresight & wisdom to scrap Sec 66A of the IT Act as too draconian 4 a democracy.

— SonaliRanade (@sonaliranade) March 23, 2015

Tomorrow we will know if #Sec66A is consistent with Constitution of India ....or Digital Freedom is just that much more out of reach? #FOE

— Samir Saran (@samirsaran) March 23, 2015

SC to rule Tuesday validity of Sec66A of Information Technology Act that empowers police to make arrests over contentious social posts.

— Utkarsh Anand (@utkarsh_aanand) March 23, 2015

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.