Although a blanket permission is not given by the Supreme Court of India for posting any objectionable comments on the face book, SC insisted on the permission of a senior police officer before arresting a person on those charges.   Supreme Court ordered that the State Governments should ensure strict following of the advisory of the Central Government on 9th January that a person should not be arrested without prior permission from a senior police officer.  

The bench of Justice B.S.Chauhan and Justice Dipak Misra gave their judgment today on the petition filed by Jaya Vindhyala the State’s General Secretary for the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) that Section 66A of the Information and Technology Act pertaining to objectionable comments on the social network should strictly be complied with.  

Senior official in the above mentioned advisory of the Central Government defines as Inspector General of Police in Metropolitan cities, Deputy Commissioner of Police or Superintendant of Police at the District level.

Jaya Vindhyala was arrested on 12th May under section 66A of IT act for her posting on the Facebook some objectionable comments on the Tamilnadu Governor K.Roshaiah and MLA Amanchi Krishna Mohan.

In other incident Shaheen Dhada belonged to Thane District posted a comment on the bundh in Mumbai over Shivasena leader Bal Thakere’s death and a like was hit by Rinu Srinivasan.  Both the girls were arrested by Police under 66A of IT.  The Government of Maharashtra admitted that the action was a hasty one, quite unwarranted and not at all justified.  Thane Police SP was suspended for not heeding IGP’s instructions not to take action against those two girls.  

The validity of Section 66a of IT is pending in Apex court.  As such a PIL was filed by a law student Shreya Singhal that police are taking action in such matters although its validity is pending in the court and an urgent hearing is required because of it.  

But Supreme Court did not give a permission to post anything you like on the social network and also did not ban such arrests but asked the Governments to comply with the advisory on it that arrests should not be made without a senior police official’s permission.  

AW-SriJa