The Supreme Court has today directed that no one should be prosecuted under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000,since the act was struck down as unconstitutional by the Court in 2015.
The Court issued a slew of directions to the Director Generals of Police and Home Secretaries for ensuring that reference to Section 66A is removed from all pending cases.
The Court has also said that the bare acts of the IT Act should adequately inform the readers that Section 66A has been invalidated.
The bench of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Ajay Rastogi heard a writ petition filed by the NGO ‘Peoples Union for Civil Liberties’ (PUCL) which talked of the Section 66A IT Act being invoked despite the judgment in Shreya Singhal v. UOI (2015) 5 SCC 1.
During the last hearing, the court had asked the Union Government to get in touch with the Chief Secretaries of the States where FIRs were filed under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act even after it being redundant and declared unconstitutional.
The Court has instructed the states for taking remedial actions in such cases.
Advocate Zoheb Hussain, who appeared for the Union of India placed an All-India Status report with regards complaints under Section 66A.
The bench noted that the information provided by the government lawyer suggests that despite the issue regarding of validity in Section 66A being dealt with in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, a number of crimes and criminal proceedings still reflected on the provision of Section 66A of the 2000 Act and citizens were still facing prosecution under the same.
The following directions were passed by the bench:
No reiteration that Section 66A is found to be in violation of the Constitution and no citizen can be prosecuted under Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000.
In all cases where citizens are facing prosecution for violations of Section 66A, the reference and reliance upon 66A from all crimes shall stand deleted.
All Director Generals of police, Home Secretaries and competent officers in States and Union Territories have to direct the entire police force not to register any complaint with respect to violation of Section 66A. This direction shall apply only with reference to Section 66A. If the crime has other facets, where other offences are also alleged, those shall not be deleted.
Whenever any publication, whether government, semi government or private, about IT Act is published and Section 66A is quoted, readers must be adequately informed that the provisions of 66A have been pronounced upon by this court as to be violative of Constitution.”
With these directions, the application filed by the PUCL was disposed of.