Section 66 of the IT Act

Following up to the UN resolution on Electronic Commerce, India had passed the IT Act, 2000 in May 2000. This act was substantially amended through the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008. The Section 66A of the IT Act penalized ‘sending false and offensive messages through communication services’. Objective of this section was to prevent grossly offensive material from circulating freely on the internet. However, its provisions were so vague that they were liable to be misused. The section sought to punish individuals with imprisonment for the following offences:

• sending any information which is grossly offensive or has a menacing character;
• sending information known to be false for causing annoyance, anger, inconvenience etc;
• persistently making use of a computer or a communication device to cause annoyance or inconvenience.

These provisions were vague and unclear and thus, the section was challenged in Supreme Court on account of violation of Article 14, 19 (1)(a) and Article 21 of the Constitution. Clause 2 of the Article 19 restricts this freedom in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency and morality and to prevent contempt of court. Provisions in the Section 66A restrict the freedom of speech without clearly falling under any of the exceptions mentioned in Article 19.

To pacify the public, the government gave assurance that the section would be applied in a reasonable manner and that arrests will not be made without the permission of an official not below the rank of Inspector General of Police. But this assurance did nothing and there were frequent incidents of arrests of individuals for small offenses. Finally, the Supreme Court held this section unconstitutional.