Centre has sent three advisories on Section 66A — all prompted by court petitions

However, this is not the first time states have been asked to not register cases under the statute.

After the law was struck down in 2015, two advisories were sent to the states in 2019 – by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) and by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The MeITY advisory, sent on January 11, 2019, reminded the states about the Supreme Court order on 66A. It said, “It has been brought to our notice through an application –MA 3220 of 2018—filed in the Honourable Supreme Court that provision of this Section is still being used by some law enforcement agencies. I, therefore, request you to direct the concerned law enforcement agencies in your state to ensure compliance of Hon’able Supreme Court order… If any case has been booked in your state in this Section, it should be immediately withdrawn.”

As evident, the People’s Union of Civil Liberties — on whose petition about continued use of Section 66A, the SC expressed shock — had already filed its petition before the advisory was sent out.

The MeITY advisory was followed by a MHA communication on January 18, 2019 to all states, asking them for data on cases filed under Section 66A as the Supreme Court had asked the government to file a counter affidavit on PUCL’s petition.

Referring to MeITY advisory, the MHA said, “Hon’able Court has passed an order dated 7-01-2019 directing UOI (MeITY) to file a counter affidavit in response to petitioner’s prayer seeking compliance w.r.t. the implementation of judgement dated 24th March, 2015, in the matter of Shreya Singhal vs UOI.”

Asking for details, it said, “You are, therefore, to kindly confirm that the Hon’able Supreme Court’s judgement has been implemented in totality, and may also kindly furnish data for prosecution invoking Section 66A after 24.3.2015, if any, to the Secretary, MeITY, to enable filing of the counter affidavit…”

Interestingly, the first advisory against arbitrary application of Section 66A was sent to states two years before the law was struck down. In this advisory, sent on January 6, 2013, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology had advised states to exercise due diligence before applying Section 66A.

“Recently certain incidents have been reported wherein Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 has been invoked… against certain persons for posting certain content which was considered by the police to be harmful.

Such action attracted lot of media attention and resulted in protest from the civil society, citizens and members of Parliament in different parts of the country. Due diligence and care may be exercised while dealing with cases of alleged misuse of cyberspace,” it said.

It also advised states against arbitrary arrests and asked states to ensure that no one is arrested under Section 66A until prior permission is taken from an officer not less than the rank of an Inspector General of Police in metropolitan cities and Deputy Commissioner of Police in districts.

Notably, the advisory had been issued after lawyer Shreya Singhal had already filed a petition against the statute in the Supreme Court in 2012.