Supreme Court strikes down Section 66A gives freedom to Indian Citizens

Supreme Court strikes down Section 66A gives freedom to Indian Citizens

In a landmark Historical judgment on the Right to Freedom of Speech on the Internet, the Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed Section 66A of the Information Technology Act that empowers the police to make arrests over contentious social media posts.
It ruled that the law violate people’s fundamental right to speech and expression.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Rohinton F Nariman held the provision to be “unconstitutional” and said it had to be struck down in its entirety. The bench said the provision had no proximate relationship with the public order

Supreme Court of India also said that Section 66A adversely impacted people’s right to know and didn’t make any distinction between advocacy, discussion on one hand and incitement on the other.

The court held that Section 66A could not be seen as a “reasonable restriction” on an individual’s right to speech and expression.

Elaborating the grounds for holding the provision as ”unconstitutional”, Supreme Court of India  said terms like “annoying”, ”inconvenient” and “grossly offensive” used in the provision are vague as it is difficult for the law enforcement agency and the offender to know the ingredients of the offence.

”When judicially trained minds can reach different conclusions” while going through the same content, then how is it possible for law enforcement agency and others to decide as to what is offensive and what is grossly offensive, the bench said, adding, “What may be offensive to a person may not be offensive to the other”.


Today its a historical day for all the Indian citizens who use the social media like Facebook, Twitter and Blogs etc as Supreme Court of India gave the freedom to Indian citzens from Taliban type of law.

Section 66A was introduced in the Information Technology Act of 2000 when the Act was amended in 2008 by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

Congress party supported this Section 66A provision after that BJP government also supported this provision sections 66A and tried hard in SC to see that provision stays so that all Indian citizens will never dare to speak against politicians and their friends.


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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

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