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Supreme Court Strikes Down Section 66A And Here’s Why You Should Be Happy About It

byKanksha Raina
24th March 2015
3 minute read

It’s a rather good day in terms of the freedom of speech, because the verdict for Section 66A of the Indian constitution is finally out. The Supreme Court has officially struck down the law, which now makes it acceptable for people to post content freely on social networking sites.

 

What is Section 66A?

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In layman’s terms, section 66A of the constitution states that if any person posts/publishes content on the internet that is offensive to someone, or circulates anything that could, in any way, prove to be offensive to someone, he or she can be fined and sent to jail for up to 3 years.

 

What was the problem with Section 66A?

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Mainly, this act is rather vague – it does not crisply define what ‘offensive’ constitutes. Thus, it can easily give leverage to the authorities to fine and jail someone over something that can be called subjective. For example, someone who believes in God can find a post on Atheism offensive, and so on. Apart from that, the Government did not clearly put a lot of thoughts into defining what cyber crime constitutes, which makes for a major loophole in the entire act. Not to mention, the act also went against section 19(a) of the constitution, which talks about the right to free speech.

 

Rinu Srinivasan, the girl who was arrested in 2012 for posting a Facebook status after the death of Bal Thackrey, said that she was really happy with the verdict.

Before the verdict was out, she talked about how repealing the act would make people fearless about expressing themselves against everything that was wrong with the world. “I am very happy. I feel like we have received justice after two years,” she said after the verdict was out. She was arrested in 2012 along with a friend, Shaheen Dhada, who had allegedly ‘liked’ Rinu’s Facebook status.

The original petitioner against this act, Shreya Singhal, is of the same opinion as Rinu Srinivasan. She expressed that Rinu and Shaheen were completely innocent; they hadn’t committed a crime because it was a matter of free speech.

 

So, where does this leave us?

The Supreme Court verdict sure is something to be glad about, because freedom of speech in the biggest democracy of the world is an important issue. With Section 66A scratched off the Indian constitution, it is a huge step for the internet generation, which is the future of our country. Needless to say, we have basic laws to govern us and make sure we don’t misuse this freedom we have now attained.

 

Till then, let’s revel in the joy of some good news after a string of bad news.

News Source: Firstpost

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