Supreme Court takes up Facebook policing issue

New Delhi, Nov 29: Voicing concern over recent incidents of people being arrested for posting alleged offensive messages on websites, the Supreme Court today agreed to hear a PIL by a young law student seeking amendment to the Information Technology Act and sought Attorney General G E Vahanvati's help in deciding it.A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said, “We were wondering why no one has approached the Supreme Court (challenging the particular provision, Sec 66A of Information Technology Act and even thought of taking up the issue suo moto.” Taking the case on urgent basis, the bench agreed to hear the PIL filed by a Delhi student Shreya Singhal but refused her plea that no coercive action should be taken by the government authorities against people for posting such messages on websites during pendency of the case.The court posted the matter for further hearing tomorrow.Shreya has contended in her plea that “the phraseology of Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000 is so wide and vague and incapable of being judged on objective standards, that it is susceptible to wanton abuse and hence falls foul of Article 14, 19 (1)(a) and Article 21 of the Constitution.”She has submitted that “unless there is judicial sanction as a prerequisite to the setting into motion the criminal law with respect to freedom of speech and expression, the law as it stands is highly susceptible to abuse and for muzzling free speech in the country.”The arrests which have been referred to by Shreya in her petition include that of a 21-year-old girl Shaheen Dhada for questioning on Facebook the shutdown in Mumbai after Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death, which was ‘liked' and shared by her friend, Rinu Srinivasan, who was also arrested.Shreya has also referred to an April 2012 incident, when a professor of chemistry from Jadavpur University in West Bengal, Ambikesh Mahapatra, was arrested for posting a cartoon concerning a political figure(Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) on social networking sites.She has also referred to the arrest of businessman Ravi Srinivasan in October 2012 by the Puducherry Police for having made an allegation on Twitter against a politician from Tamil Nadu as well as the May 2012 arrests of two Air India employees, V Jaganatharao and Mayank Sharma, by the Mumbai Police under the IT Act for posting content of Facebook and Orkut against a trade union leader and some politicians.Shreya in her plea has also sought issue of guidelines, by the apex court, to “reconcile section 41 and 156 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code with Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution” and that offences under the Indian penal Code and any other legislation if they involve the freedom of speech and expression be treated as a non-cognizable offence for the purposes of Section 41 and Section 156 (1).Section 41 of the CrPC empowers the police to arrest any person without an order from the magistrate and without a warrant in the event that the offence involved is a cognizable offence. Section 156 (1) empowers the investigation by the police into a cognizable offence without an order of a magistrate.While agreeing to hear the case, the bench said it was considering to take suo motu cognisance of recent incidents of arrest of people.Meanwhile, the government today issued guidelines that state approval from an officer of DCP level at rural areas and IG level in metros will have to be sought before registering complaints under section 66A of the IT Act.