Sherya Singhal at 21 Battles for Free Speech in India
After speaking to her mother regarding acting against the unfair treatment due to the IT Act, Shreya Singhal filed a petition with the India’s Supreme Court asking to repeal Section 66 (a) of the IT Act on the grounds that it impairs the right to free speech as per the Indian constitution. The first hearing of the case Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India is scheduled by the Supreme Court for 14 Jan 2013.
Shreya coming from four generation of lawyers is set to take the court proceedings with ease. With her passion for litigation, which she has displayed on many occasions as being on the debate team in school, lobbying in college and removal of the biophysics lecturer on the basis that he wasn’t good enough proves her skills.
Shreya’s mother was surprised when her daughter went ahead and filed the petition. However, Shreya is very serious about the case for she has even hired a lawyer for her case. Apart from the Facebook arrests, Shreya’s petition has also referred two other cases of people being charged under Section 66 (a).
One of them is a case of Ambikesh Mahapatra, a university professor. He was temporarily retained for sharing a cartoon by email that mocked the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Another case is of a Pondicherry businessman who alleged the cabinet minister’s son on his wealth, on Twitter.
