-The Hindu Six years ago, the Supreme Court struck down the provision as unconstitutional and a violation of free speech. The Supreme Court on Monday found it “distressing”, “shocking” and “terrible” that people were still booked and tried under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act even six years after the Supreme Court struck down the provision as unconstitutional and a violation of free speech. Section 66A had prescribed three years’ imprisonment if...
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Centre’s IT Rules bring answerability in digital ecosystem. But they also increase political control -Apar Gupta
-The Indian Express Apar Gupta writes: The substance of many of the requirements were never put to public consultation or deliberation by experts. This is particularly the case for the regulations for online news portals and video streaming platforms. In the polarised environment that we now inhabit, there are few public agreements. One of these rare instances is an agreement that social media is broken. For many commentators, this is an area...
More »Dishonouring the verdict -Apar Gupta and Abhinav Sekhri
-The Indian Express On the ground, SC ruling on Section 66A is frequently violated. In October 2018, we published a small study revealing how Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act 2000 [“IT Act”] continued to be used to prosecute persons despite being struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in Shreya Singhal (2015). We suggested that this afterlife was not merely wanton exercise of power by the police but...
More »Arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar : A Short Summary of the law of Sedition in India -Lawrence Liang
-Kafila.org News reports are indicating that an FIR has been registered with respect to a public meeting organized on the JNU campus on the evening of 9th February. These reports claim that the meeting was about the hanging of Afzal Guru, and it is alleged that during its course, some people raised incendiary slogans. According to reports, the FIR has been registered under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (sedition),...
More »The ‘greatness’ of a ‘landmark’ judgment -Peter Ronald deSouza
-The Hindu The supporting props offered for the striking down of Section 66A diminish the arrogance of government and reinstate the ‘genuine' rule of law. Reading the judgment, one is tempted to ask this question: Is it a landmark judgment or just a great one? To appreciate the difference between "great" and "landmark", it is necessary to begin with some very fine distinctions. A great judgment is one that restores the constitutional...
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