{"id":6014,"date":"2015-03-24T14:39:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T09:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/?p=6014"},"modified":"2023-07-01T15:53:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T15:53:31","slug":"6014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public&#8217;s right to know is directly affected by <a title=\"Clarity required on \u2018infirmity\u2019 in Section 66A, IT Act 2000\" href=\"http:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/2014\/12\/clarity-required-infirmity-section-66a-act-2000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Section 66A<\/a> and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined under the Constitution of India, held that <a title=\"Government to reconsider Section 66 A of IT Act\" href=\"http:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/2014\/12\/government-reconsider-section-66-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Section 66A<\/a> was unconstitutional because it failed two major tests &#8211; the clear and present danger test and the tendency to create public disorder test.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court also found the language used in the Section vague and nebulous saying it doesn&#8217;t properly define words like &#8216;offensive&#8217; or even &#8216;persistent&#8217;. This section had been widely misused by police in various states to arrest innocent persons for posting critical comments about social and political issues and political leaders on social networking sites.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Court further, observed that, it can&#8217;t go by government assurances that the Section won&#8217;t be misused as any assurance would not bind on successive governments. Section 66 A it said, would have to be judged on its own merits. However, allowed the government to block websites if their content had the potential to create communal disturbance, social disorder or affect India&#8217;s relationship with other countries.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court said such a law hit at the root of liberty and freedom of expression, the two cardinal pillars of democracy. The court said the section has to be erased from the law books as it has gone much beyond the reasonable restrictions put by the Constitution on freedom of speech. The Supreme Court said section 66A was vaguely worded and allowed its misuse by police.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The SC delivered its judgment on a bunch of petitions filed in the light of misuse of the penal provision by government authorities against persons who allegedly uploaded offensive posts on social networking sites against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public&#8217;s right to know is directly affected by Section 66A and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[88,47],"tags":[452,1296,1542,1706,2814,3056,3109,3152,3154],"class_list":["post-6014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-diary","category-legal-update","tag-bal-thackeray","tag-fundamental-right","tag-indian-constitution","tag-it-act","tag-right-to-freedom-of-speech-and-expression","tag-section-66-a","tag-shiv-sena","tag-social-network","tag-social-networking-sites","clearfix","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public&#039;s right to know is directly affected by Section 66A and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public&#039;s right to know is directly affected by Section 66A and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lex.warrier.page\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-24T09:09:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-01T15:53:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lex-Warrier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LexWarrier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LexWarrier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lex-Warrier\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lex-Warrier\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/person\/ab2bb19b344a2bfcbc373777495f8f82\"},\"headline\":\"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-24T09:09:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-01T15:53:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html\"},\"wordCount\":311,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"keywords\":[\"Bal Thackeray\",\"Fundamental Right\",\"Indian Constitution\",\"IT Act\",\"Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression\",\"Section 66 A\",\"Shiv Sena\",\"Social Network\",\"Social Networking sites\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Court Diary\",\"Legal Update\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-24T09:09:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-01T15:53:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/\",\"name\":\"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal\",\"description\":\"ISSN (O): 2319-8338\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.lex-warrier.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/The-Lex-Warrier-Online-Law-Journal-1.png?fit=496%2C160\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.lex-warrier.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/The-Lex-Warrier-Online-Law-Journal-1.png?fit=496%2C160\",\"width\":496,\"height\":160,\"caption\":\"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lex.warrier.page\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/LexWarrier\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/person\/ab2bb19b344a2bfcbc373777495f8f82\",\"name\":\"Lex-Warrier\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b7ad5c6449779ff1b8138f13b99bc7373067c121ed40965fc4da29ee734eeb28?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b7ad5c6449779ff1b8138f13b99bc7373067c121ed40965fc4da29ee734eeb28?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lex-Warrier\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional","description":"Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional","og_description":"Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of","og_url":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html","og_site_name":"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lex.warrier.page\/","article_published_time":"2015-03-24T09:09:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-01T15:53:31+00:00","author":"Lex-Warrier","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@LexWarrier","twitter_site":"@LexWarrier","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lex-Warrier","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html"},"author":{"name":"Lex-Warrier","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/person\/ab2bb19b344a2bfcbc373777495f8f82"},"headline":"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional","datePublished":"2015-03-24T09:09:37+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-01T15:53:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html"},"wordCount":311,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","keywords":["Bal Thackeray","Fundamental Right","Indian Constitution","IT Act","Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression","Section 66 A","Shiv Sena","Social Network","Social Networking sites"],"articleSection":["Court Diary","Legal Update"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html","url":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html","name":"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2015-03-24T09:09:37+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-01T15:53:31+00:00","description":"Bench of Supreme Court, while observing public's right to know is directly affected by Section 66A and the Section clearly affects the right to freedom of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/6014.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Supreme Court strike down Section 66A of IT Act as unconstitutional"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/","name":"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal","description":"ISSN (O): 2319-8338","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#organization","name":"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal","url":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.lex-warrier.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/The-Lex-Warrier-Online-Law-Journal-1.png?fit=496%2C160","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.lex-warrier.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/The-Lex-Warrier-Online-Law-Journal-1.png?fit=496%2C160","width":496,"height":160,"caption":"The Lex-Warrier: Online Law Journal"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lex.warrier.page\/","https:\/\/x.com\/LexWarrier"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/person\/ab2bb19b344a2bfcbc373777495f8f82","name":"Lex-Warrier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b7ad5c6449779ff1b8138f13b99bc7373067c121ed40965fc4da29ee734eeb28?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b7ad5c6449779ff1b8138f13b99bc7373067c121ed40965fc4da29ee734eeb28?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lex-Warrier"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2ACRt-6014","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7951,"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions\/7951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lex-warrier.in\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}