Prompted by our application, the Ministry of Home Affairs, on July 14, 2021 issued a notification directing all law enforcement authorities to stop registering new cases under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and to immediately withdraw all pending cases.
Supreme Court issues notice in PUCL’s application seeking directions against continued enforcement of Section 66A. IFF provided legal assistance to PUCL.
We write to Supreme Court e-Committee highlighting the difficulties we faced on eCourt platform while building the Zombie Tracker. We have also provided our recommendations which seek to enable others to conduct data-driven research of judicial trends.
Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, was enacted into the statute through an amendment in 2008. The section penalised sending “offensive messages” via online communication. In this post we trace the journey of Section 66A of the IT Act from 2008 to 2020.
Despite repeated directions by the Supreme Court, that all pending cases under S. 66A of the Information Technology Act be closed and also that no fresh charges may be registered, the provision continues to be invoked across the country.