Free speech and the Internet; analysing Section 66A IT,2000
Conventional legal structures have had great difficulty in keeping pace with the brisk growth of the Internet and its impact throughout the world. The Internet has tested the limits of regulation, Governments across the world eagerly seem accept the conception that cyberspace can’t be governed. This perception stands miscalculated, underestimating the power governments and businesses posses to change the way things work. Multiple international organisations are currently working on projects that are probable to radically influence the course of domestic bylaws and regulations in areas pertinent to electronic world. This International work must not only assist the Indian set up to the nations’ competitive advantage, but also keep India in compliance with international norms, ensuring that the economic, social and cultural benefits of new technology are maximised. As soon as you enter the virtual world, you leave footprints that are traceable, now the question that arises is- when does communication over the Internet mete out or threaten to impose adequate damage on its recipient that it ceases to be protected by the Freedom of Speech bar set out in the Indian Constitution?
66A OF THE INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000
Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000: If any person sends by means of a computer resource or a communication any content which is grossly offensive or has a menacing character or which is not true but is sent to create nuisance, annoyance, criminal intimidation, hatred or ill will etc shall be imprisoned for an imprisonment term which may be up to two years combined with a fine.
The court in the Singhal Case struck down in its entirety, Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000 being violative of Article 19(1)(a) and not saved under Article 19(2). The Preamble of the Constitution of India also articulates of liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship stating that India is a sovereign democratic republic. Nonetheless it is needless to state that when it comes to democracy, liberty of thought and expression is of paramount and chief implication under the constitutional scheme. Nonetheless the Supreme Court in striking down Section 66A has left the nation affirmative, oppressive censorship law that this country has ever witnessed. It has further introduced imperative procedural safeguards to the blocking rules and to the intermediary liability; it has made the provisions more speech protective than they were earlier. “It is clear that Section 66A, arbitrarily, excessively and disproportionately invades the right of free speech and upsets the balance between such right and the reasonable restrictions that may be imposed on such right,” the court said, in its ruling, addition to which it stated that the law “was cast so widely that virtually any opinion on any subject would be covered by it, as any serious opinion dissenting with the mores of the day would be caught within its net.”
The Supreme Court has rightly upheld “Thought control is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it. It is the function of the Government to keep the citizen falling into error; We could justify any censorship only when the censors are better shielded against error than the censored.”
To learn more about Cyber Law in India, stay connected to our blog or head on to our Diploma Course and learn from leading law firms in India.
https://www.enhelion.com/product/certificate-programme-in-internet-law-and-policy/