New Delhi: Extreme political views and decent humour in the cyber world cannot be prohibited, Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday while making out a case for blocking outrageous and offensive contents hurting religious sentiments. “The extreme political views or contrary views and decent humour cannot be prohibited,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta submitted before a bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar and R F Nariman.
The ASG, however, placed documents indicating that those posts which had the potential of “outrageously and directly offending” religious sentiments needed to be prohibited in the cyber world.
Mehta also wanted that the documents, submitted in a sealed cover, should be only for the perusal of the bench but when the opposite parties demanded them, he was asked by the judges to supply them the material.
The law officer then requested that the contents of the documents prohibited from posting in the social networking sites, should not be allowed to be circulated.
The brief submission by the ASG was made just ahead of the start of the hearing on a bunch of petitions seeking scrapping of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act for its misuse by law enforcing agencies in arresting people for sending alleged offensive messages. The hearing on several petitions filed over the last two years had to be commenced afresh due to the change in the combination of judges in the bench. The first PIL on the issue was filed in 2012 by a law student Shreya Singhal, who sought amendment in Section 66A of the Act, after two girls — Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan — were arrested in Palghar in Thane district as one of them posted a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death and the other ‘liked’ it.
The apex court had in 2013 said a person, accused of posting objectionable comments on social networking sites, cannot be arrested without police getting permission from senior officers.
The direction had come in the wake of numerous complaints of harassment and arrests, sparking public outrage. It had, however, refused to pass an interim order for a blanket ban on the arrest of such persons across the country. (PTI)
