The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued directions that no citizen can be prosecuted under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which it had scrapped way back in 2015.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit said in all cases where citizens are facing prosecution for alleged violation of Section 66-A of the Act, the reference and reliance upon the said provision shall stand deleted.
Under the annulled section, a person posting offensive content could be imprisoned for up to three years and also fined.
Underlining that liberty of thought and expression is of "cardinal" significance, the top court had on March 24, 2015 done away with the provision, saying "the public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A of the Information Technology Act".
"We direct all Director General of Police as well as Home Secretaries of the states and competent officers in Union Territories to instruct the entire police force in their respective states/Union Territories not to register any complaint of crime with respect to alleged violation of section 66A," said the bench, also comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and S R Bhat.
The top court clarified that this direction shall apply only with respect to offence punishable under section 66A, and if in the crime in question, other offences are also alleged, then the reference and reliance upon section 66A alone shall be deleted. The bench observed the counsel appearing for the Centre has placed on record an all-India status report with regard to pending cases under section 66A.
It observed the information given in a tabular form does suggest that despite the issue regarding the validity of section 66A of the Act having been decided by the apex court, a number of criminal proceedings still rely upon this provision and citizens are still facing prosecution.
"Such criminal proceedings, in our view, are directly in the teeth of the directions issued by this court in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India (March 2015 judgement) and consequently, we issue following directions….," the bench said.
"It needs no reiteration that section 66A of the 2000 Act has been found by this court in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India to be violative of Constitution and as such, no citizen can be prosecuted ....In said section 66A," it said.