BENGALURU: Within three weeks after quashing the objectionable Section 66-A of the Information and Technology Act by Supreme Court, the Government has begun to work on a better and clear provision that would help it to deal with issues regarding social media posts aimed at inciting any kind of offence. ET reports that the ministry needs to formulate framework immediately as the central law enforcement and intelligence agencies are helpless to counter social media posts that involve national security considerations.
To formulate the new legal framework the ministry has set up a committee comprising members from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of investigation (CBI), National Investigation Authority (NIA), and the Delhi Police.
The reason why the act was quashed was that it was found violating the freedom of speech and expression of the citizens and also that it was poorly constructed. Therefore the new provision must be made more specific, as to stop social media activities which support terror acts or putting up posts that could lead to an offence like communal riots.
A senior ministry official told ET, "we agree that Section 66A in its former form needed to be quashed as it was vague and loosely drafted. Whether we now bring back Section 66A in the IT Act in a clearer and better form or the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is tweaked to factor in the two concerns flagged by the security agencies, the committee will go into this over the next one month. The recommendations will then be sent to the IT ministry for consultations. The aim is to get a constitutionally compliant version of Section 66A. The provision will not be reinstated with the same construction as before and will be drastically different. Our aim is to protect the country's sovereignty."
The ministry said that this exercise will be carried out “with due care and caution.” A ministry official said that, "we want to ensure there are no indiscriminate arrests and no undue harassment."
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