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After SC rebuke, Centre directs states to withdraw all cases under Section 66A of IT Act
The union home ministry has directed all states and UTs to withdraw all cases registered under the scrapped Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act and to refrain from filing cases in then future. The Centre’s directive came days after the Supreme Court expressed shock over filing of cases under the repealed law and asked the government to come up with a response.
In its advisory sent to the chief secretaries and director generals of police, the ministry said on Wednesday: “It has been brought to our notice through an application in the Supreme Court that FIRs are still being lodged by some police authorities under the struck down provision of Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000. Hon’ble Supreme Court has taken a very serious view of the matter.”
The ministry said, it is 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and Union Territories (UTs)to direct all police stations under their jurisdiction not to register cases under the repealed Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000″
“If any case has been booked in your state under Section 66A of the IT Act, it should immediately be withdrawn.” it added.
Last week, A bench of Justices R F Nariman, K M Joseph and B R Gavai came down heavily upon the government after the court was informed that 745 cases under this provision were still under trial in courts of 11 states.
“Don’t you think this is amazing and shocking? Shreya Singhal judgement is of 2015. It’s really shocking. What is going on is terrible,” the bench told senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for PUCL.
The bench further directed the government to come up with a response to ensure police stop invoking Section 66A of the Act in First Information Reports (FIRs).
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The Supreme Court on March 24, 2015, struck down a much-abused Section, which authorised police to arrest people for social media posts construed to be “offensive” or “menacing”.
