States and law enforcement agencies share equal responsibility to ensure citizens are not booked by the police under the repealed Section 6...
States and law enforcement agencies share equal responsibility to ensure citizens are not booked by the police under the repealed Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, the Centre has told the Supreme Court, Live Law reported on Sunday.
The Supreme Court had struck down Section 66A of the IT Act as unconstitutional in 2015. The provision allowed the police to make arrests for posting offensive content online.
On July 5 this year, a bench headed by Justice RF Nariman had observed that it was distressing and shocking to find out that the police were still filing cases under the scrapped provision. In a petition, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties alleged misuse of Section 66A by authorities across the country.
Nariman and Justice J Chelameswar had delivered the 2015 Shreya Singhal judgement, stating that the provision was vague and worded arbitrarily.
On July 14, the Centre had directed states and Union Territories to immediately withdraw all existing cases under Section 66A.
In a counter affidavit filed in the case, the government said the police and public order were “state subjects” under the Constitution of India.
“Prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes, and capacity building of police personnel are primary responsibility of states,” the Centre submitted. “The law enforcement agencies take legal action as per provisions of law against the...
