Supreme Court: The Court has sought Centre’s response on a plea alleging prosecutions even after the Supreme Court scrapped Section 66 A of the IT Act under which a person could be arrested for posting allegedly offensive content on websites.
Taking serious note of the allegation, the Court said that the concerned officials will be arrested and sent to jail if it’s order dated 24.03.2015 scrapping the provision of the IT Act is violated. Appearing for the NGO PUCL, advocate Sanjay Parikh said more than 22 people have been arrested under the provision of the IT Act scrapped by the top court in 2015.
The bench of J. Chelameswar and RF Nariman, had, on 24.03.2015, held that Section 66A has no proximate connection with incitement to commit an offence. Testing the validity of the Section on the touchstone of the clear and present danger test or the tendency to create public disorder, it was held that Section 66A would not pass muster as it has no element of any tendency to create public disorder which ought to be an essential ingredient of the offence which it creates.
(Source: PTI)
