The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved orders on the constitutional validity of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act dropping hints that the vagueness of words used in the provision gave rise to apprehension of its potential misuse.
A Bench of justices J Chelameswar and Rohington F Nariman reserved orders after hearing arguments by the Centre, and several PIl petitioners who approached the Court to scrap Section 66A along with blocking rules and provisions relating to intermediaries who host content on internet.
To an argument by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta that mere possibility of abuse cannot be a ground to scrap a legal provision, the Bench gave instances to suggest that interpretation of the word "grossly offensive" can be open to wide interpretation. For example, the Jain community may host an article denying belief in Gods, which is not an offensive post but an article of their faith.