NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday ordered states and Union territories to “immediately withdraw” all cases filed under the repealed Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act, nine days after the Supreme Court termed the unabated use of the scrapped section “a shocking state of affairs”.
The government’s directive will help save the judiciary’s time as 745 cases registered under the defunct section are pending before various trial courts in 11 states. The Ministry of Home Affairs further ordered states and UTs to direct all police stations under their jurisdiction not to register cases under the section, which was scrapped by the SC on March 24, 2015.
“It has been brought to our notice through an application in Hon’ble Supreme Court that FIRs are still being lodged by some police authorities under the struck down provision of Section 66-A of IT, Act, 2000. The Supreme Court has taken a very serious view in the matter,” the MHA said in the communication to states and UTs.
In the letter to all the chief secretaries of states, administrators of UTs and police chiefs, the MHA emphasised the need to “sensitise the law enforcement agencies for the compliance of the order issued by the Supreme Court on 24.03.2015”.
The home ministry also reminded the states that it had sent directives to the authorities on three previous occasions on January 11, January 14 and April 1 to sensitise the police authorities.