Question

Section 66A of the IT Act, which penalised offensive online messages, was struck down by the Supreme Court in

• A. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015)
• B. Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)
• C. Yahoo! Inc. v. Union of India (2009)
• D. Facebook v. Union of India (2020)

Answer 1

Answer:

A. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015)

• Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000: This section criminalized sending "offensive" or "menacing" messages through a computer or communication device. However, the terms used in the section were extremely vague, leading to widespread misuse and arbitrary arrests by law enforcement.

• Landmark Judgment (Shreya Singhal Case): On March 24, 2015, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India (Justices J. Chelameswar and Rohinton Fali Nariman) struck down Section 66A in its entirety in the famous Shreya Singhal v. Union of India case.

• Reasoning: The Supreme Court ruled that Section 66A violated Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution (Freedom of Speech and Expression) and was not saved under the reasonable restrictions mentioned in Article 19(2). The court noted that the law was unconstitutionally vague and had a "chilling effect" on free speech.