The government on Wednesday argued before the Supreme Court that Section 66A of the Information Technology Act should be interpreted on a case by case basis.
In arguments which continued through the day before a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar, the government was addressing the court’s view that the penal provision was too vague. Section 66A prescribes a three-year jail term to a person found guilty of causing “annoyance or inconvenience” through social media.
The court had asked the government to explain what constituted “grossly offensive.” The government maintained that the provision was a necessary deterrent and could not be cast away on the apprehension that it would be misused to affect the freedom of speech and expression.
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“If the medicine is bitter, then we can have sugar after it instead of throwing the medicine [away]. People have to take the medicine as it is for their benefit,” Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued during an earlier hearing.
The court is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of certain provisions in the 2000 Act. One of the petitions filed is by Shreya Singhal, a law student, which deals with the arrest of two girls, Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan, in Thane, Maharashtra, in connection with a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death.