SC to decide on amending act

Noting that the country was “outraged” over the arrest of two girls in Maharashtra, the Supreme Court on Thursday decided to examine the Information Technology Act to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

After senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi mentioned the matter at 2 p.m, a bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J Chelameswar said that it would first hear the Attorney General on Friday on the issue. Representing Shreya Singhal, an LLB student from Delhi who sought amendments to the IT Act for violating Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution, Rohtagi said that section 66 A of the Act was absolutely vague.

While agreeing to hear the case, the bench said it was considering taking suo motu cognisance of recent incidents of arrests of people and wondered why nobody had so far challenged the particular provision of the IT Act.

The bench, however, rejected the petitioner’s plea that no coercive action should be taken by the government authorities against people for posting such messages on websites during pendency of the case.