Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 7

Taking strong exception to people still being prosecuted under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act three years after it was declared unconstitutional, the Supreme Court on Monday warned of strong action against errant officials.

“It’s shocking that people are still being prosecuted for a provision that was scrapped by this court in 2015. If that is the case then we will send all those concerned officials to jail,” a Bench headed by Justice Rohinton F Nariman said.

The Bench, which also included Justice Vineet Sharan, gave the Centre four weeks to respond to a Public Interest Litigation filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).

PUCL’s counsel Sanjay Parikh said more than 22 prosecutions had taken place under the provision since the Supreme Court’s March 2015 verdict. The court has sought issuance of appropriate circulars and advisories to all states and union territories for immediate full compliance of the verdict.

Acting on a PIL filed by Shreya Singhal, the Supreme Court had on March 24 declared unconstitutional Section 66A of IT Act—a provision that gave sweeping powers to the police to arrest people for posting “annoying” or “offensive” comments online.

Justice Nariman was part of the Bench that read down the provision because it violated a citizen’s constitutional to free speech.

Section 66A of the IT Act made sending such messages a crime, punishable by up to three years jail.

“We hold the section unconstitutional on the grounds that it takes within its sweep protected speech that is innocent in nature. It is liable to have a chilling effect on free speech and, therefore, has to be struck down,” the top court had said then.

The provision hit headlines after two girls—Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan—were arrested in Palghar in Maharashtra’s Thane district for posting something online against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death.

“Despite the clear and unequivocal holding of this Court in Shreya Singhal case, Section 66A of the IT Act continues to be applied in the legal system. A recent working paper by the Internet Freedom Foundation demonstrates that pending prosecutions under Section 66A of the IT Act have not been terminated, and further that it continues to be invoked by police across India in FIR registered after the verdict,” the PUCL said in its petition.