In 2015, the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, as unconstitutional. That decision, Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, was praised by domestic and foreign media alike.
Last week We updated an article on Surveillance state. To continue in the domain of Information Technology , Today We are going to take a look on continued menace of Unauthorised Section of IT Act, 2000. Tuesday (ie.07/01/19), Supreme Court issued notice to state regarding this issue. It also asserted that the concerned officials will be arrested if its order scrapping the provision has been violated. Section 66A had been dubbed as "draconian act" for it allowed the arrest of several innocent persons. It invited a public outcry for its scrapping.
This had led to the Supreme Court striking it down as unconstitutional in March, 2015. The court had ruled that the provision violated freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India and that it did not fall under the reasonable restrictions enunciated under Article 19 (2). Right from the police station, to trial courts, and all the way to High Courts, one finds that Section 66-A is still in use despite it being denied a place on the statute book.
The Internet Freedom Foundation had then released a paper in October last year, claiming that Section 66A continued to be used across India, despite the judgement.
It was authored by Abhinav & gupta. They described Section 66A a "legal zombie", asserting that it haunts to Indian criminal process, despite more than three years having passed since the judgment.
Weakest Branch?
Inspite of striking of this section, Government ( Police Dept) is continued to book case against public. Judiciary considered to be the third pillar of our democracy. Yet most of the orders of Courts in india aren't being followed by the State itself. We can take example of mob lynching and sabarimala verdict also. This was one of the reasons why Alexander Hamilton famously labelled the judiciary as “the least dangerous branch”.
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