The bench was hearing a miscellaneous application of NGO 'People's Union for Civil Liberties' (PUCL) alleging prosecution of people under the scrapped provision. (File photo)TAKING NOTE of law enforcement agencies continuing to book people under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which has been struck down, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that no person should be prosecuted under it anymore.
Hearing a plea which raised the issue, a three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India U U Lalit asked the Home Secretary and Director Generals of Police of states to direct their officers not to register any complaint with respect to violation of Section 66A and to see to it that reference to the provision, which was held unconstitutional by the court in the Shreya Singhal case in 2015, is removed from all pending cases.
Hearing the PIL on September 6, the top court had expressed “serious concern” over states continuing to register FIRs for offences under the provision and asked Advocate Zoheb Hossain, who appeared on behalf of the Centre, to “get in touch with the concerned Chief Secretaries of the respective states where the offences are still being registered or stand registered and impress upon” them “to take remedial measures as early as possible”.
On Wednesday, Hossain submitted a status report outlining the statistics on such cases before the bench also comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Ajay Rastogi.
Taking note, the bench said in its order that Section 66A was already held unconstitutional and no citizen can be prosecuted under it. It said that in all cases where citizens are facing prosecution for violations of Section 66A, the reference and reliance upon 66A shall stand deleted.