“What is going on is terrible”- The Supreme Court exclaimed during a hearing post revelation of the police still filing cases under the scrapped law termed “unconstitutional”.
There have been more than 1000 cases registered under Section 66A of the IT Act despite the law being struck 7 seven years back. It had caused a stir back in 2015 after controversies surrounded the rule that gave powers to the police to arrest any person who posted “offensive” content or any false information online with the intention of annoying people.
The law in question was removed by the SC on March 24, 2015 following a landmark judgement. The top court today expressed its shock over the continued use of the now-scrapped law that was termed “unconstitutional”, a “violation of free speech” and “vague”.
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The 3-member bench consisting of Justices R Nariman, BR Gavai and KM Joseph said, “It is shocking. We will issue notice.”
“Amazing! What is going on is terrible!” Justice Nariman added as the top court sought the Centre’s response over the matter within 2 weeks.
The issue was heard in the court after an NGO called the People Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) appealed to direct the central government to inform all police stations not to file cases under the scrapped law.
Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for the petitioner NGO, requested the court to check the number of cases that have increased since 2015. “…people are suffering”, he said, urging the SC to instruct the Centre to gather the data pertaining to all FIRs filed under the now-defunct law and the active probes concerned with these cases, along with those pending in courts.
Before Section 66A was scrapped, 229 cases were pending in the court, Mr Parikh said. This number increased as 1,307 new cases were registered. Out of these, 570 are yet to be heard. The cases were filed in different states with majority of them being in Maharashtra- 381. Jharkhand followed with 291 cases while Uttar Pradesh came next with 245 and Rajasthan with 192 cases. Apart from these, 7 other states too registered cases under this law, including Assam- 59 cases, Andhra Pradesh- 37, West Bengal- 37, Delhi- 28, Telangana- 15, Karnataka- 14 and Tamil Nadu- 7.
In February 2019, the Supreme Court had ordered every High Court to distribute copies of the scrapped law judgement to every district court. It also directed the Centre to send the copies to the Chief Secretaries of all states and UTs as well. These officials were then directed to inform all police departments of the scrapped law.
“… shockingly, despite the above order (dated February 15, 2019) and steps taken towards compliance… the Applicant discovered that Section 66A of the IT Act has continued to be in use not only within police stations but also in cases before trial courts across India,” the petitoner said.
Speaking on behalf of the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal said there is only a footnote that the SC has struck down the law instead of a bracket mentioning “struck down”.
“Even if it is struck down… Section 66A is still there in the bare Acts. When police has to register a case, it is still there…,” he said.
Upon learning that the authorities are still using the Section 66A, Delhi High Court advocate Abhinav Sekhri and Internet Freedom Foundation’s Apar Gupta called it a “Legal Zombie” in their study of 2018.
The incident shaped after a Mumbai law student named Shreya Singhal filed a petition in 2012 following the arrest of 2 women who shared critical comments over the city’s shutdown after Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray died.
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“Respect cannot be taken by force”, Ms Singhal had said, adding that, “Nobody should have the fear of putting up something because of the fear of going to prison.” She had further reminded that there were other laws in the constitution that could be used to tackle hate speech online.
The controversial law that was slammed due to its misuse by the police was taken down by the Supreme Court on March 24, 2015 amid criticism from the BJP government, which defended it. The law had earlier also witnessed the support of the Congress when it was in power.
“Any person who sends by any means of a computer resource any information, which is grossly offensive or has a menacing character; or any information which he is aware is false, but for the purpose of annoying, causing inconvenience, insult, obstruction, danger shall be liable for punishment with up to 3 years of jail and a fine,” Sec 66A read.
