Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act was set down in March 2015. The Supreme Court issued notice to all states, union territories, and Registrar Generals of all high courts on Monday. it has been seen that few High Courts are still having hearings on the cases.
A bench of Justices RF Nariman and BR Gavai in a petition filed by the NGO People Union for Civil Liberties stated that “they would pass comprehensive order so that matter of booking people under scrapped section 66A of IT Act is settled once and for all.”
The scrapped section, according to the petition, was still in use not only at police stations but also in trial courts across the country. “Judiciary we can take care of separately,” the bench said, “but police is also there.”
Because this cannot continue, there must be a single proper order.”
After four weeks, the case has been rescheduled for a second hearing.
“The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has requested States and Union Territories (UTs) to direct all police stations under their jurisdiction not to register cases under the repealed Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
It has also asked the States and UTs to sensitize law enforcement agencies for the compliance of the order issued by the Supreme Court on 24.03.2015,” a statement issued by the MHA said.
“Amazing. What is going on is terrible,” Justice Nariman said as Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh pointed out how the number of cases has steadily increased over the years. Despite the court’s March 24, 2015 ruling in the Shreya Singhal v. Union of India case, which struck down section 66A for “violating Article 19(1)(a) and not being saved under Article 19(2).”
Section 66A empowered police to make arrests based on anything they considered “offensive” or “menacing” or for the intention of causing annoyance, inconvenience, or other damage in their personal opinion.
