Shreya Singhal a 21-year-old law student from Delhi who on Thursday filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court calling Section 66(A) of the Information Technology (IT) Act unconstitutional has been approved.
The supreme court of India has sacked the Information Technology Act section 66 (A) reasoning it to be unconstitutional in terms of its practice and interpretation of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
According to Times of India “The court said such a law hit at the root of liberty and freedom of expression, the two cardinal pillars of democracy. The court said the section has to be erased from the law books as it has gone much beyond the reasonable restrictions put by the Constitution on freedom of speech. The Supreme Court said section 66A was vaguely worded and allowed its misuse by police. The court, however, allowed the government to block websites if their content had the potential to create communal disturbance, social disorder or affect India’s relationship with other countries.”
The section was manipulated in desired way by the ruling government against anyone who stood against them. Apart from that various cases had surfaced with innocent people being victimized of posting critical comments about social and political issues and political leaders on social networking sites.
The famous case of the two girls who were arrested for posting remarks about Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s funeral bringing Mumbai to a halt in their social media.
Similarly the court has contented the validity of section 69(B).
