The SC delivered the landmark judgement on Tuesday March 24,2015 on a petition filed by Shreya Singhal, who sought amendment in Section 66A of the IT Act.
The section had given police powers to arrest anyone for sending offensive messages from mobiles and computers with up to 3 years in jail.
Shreya Singhal filed the petition after two girls - Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan - were arrested in Palghar in Thane district of Maharashtra as one of them posted a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death and the other 'liked' it.
The SC said that the section interferes with freedom of speech and expression, adding that the definition for grounds of arrest under the section were vague.
Note
There have been several cases wherein Section 66A of the Act were misused and appeals seeking an amendment have been demanded.
Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra was arrested for forwarding caricatures on Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Facebook in 2012
Activist Aseem Trivedi was also arrested in 2012 for drawing cartoons of Parliament and the Constitution to depict their ineffectiveness. He was arrested on charges of sedition leading to huge protests
In another instance in 2012, Air India employee Mayank Sharma and KV Rao from Mumbai were arrested for allegedly posting offensive comments against politicians on their Facebook group
Businessman Ravi Srinivasan was also charged in 2012 by Puducherry Police for allegedly tweeting against Karti Chidambaram, son of then union minister P Chidambaram. he had allegedly called Karti 'corrupt' in his tweet
A tourism officer in Varanasi was arrested for uploading "objectionable" pictures of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and senior SP leader Azam Khan on Facebook
In 2014, a young shipping professional Devu Chodankar was booked for a Facebook post on Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi in which he said that would start a holocaust in India. Chodankar had written on a Facebook forum on Goa+, a popular forum with over 47,000 members, if elected to power, Modi would unleash a 'holocaust'. He deleted his post subsequently. Chodankar later apologised for his choice of words but stood by the sum of his argument, calling it his crusade against the "tyranny of fascists".
Recently, a class 11 student was arrested for making a Facebook post about UP minister Azam Khan. Khan had claimed that law is enforced with strictness and the boy was arrested within 24 hours. He ater agreed to withdraw his statement and his parents offered an apology too
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