Following is the text of the statement made by the Union Minister for Telecom & IT, Sh Ravi Shankar Prasad on Supreme Court judgement on section 66-A of IT act:
“The Union Government welcomes
Hon’ble SC’s decision on 66A. When the UPA Govt came out with draconian
provisions under 66A, BJP in opposition firmly opposed it and said that ’66 is unacceptable in current
form’. BJP resolutely
stood up against the censorship and blocking on social media done by UPA
Govt.
Once in Govt, it took its
opposition to the draconian provisions of 66A on record in Court Proceedings.
New Affidavits filed by NDA Govt in Hon’ble Supreme Court clearly show the
marked difference in the approach from UPA Govt.
NDA Govt, in what can be dubbed
as a landmark moment in India’s Internet history, has accorded the same amount
of freedom of speech and expression that a citizen of India is granted in
normal life under our constitution by our founding fathers .
After detailed discussion with
the Central Government at the highest possible level, the Central Government
filed an Affidavit before the Hon’ble Supreme Court making its stand absolutely
clear that the Government respects the freedom of speech and expression.
The relevant paragraphs are verbatim quoted:
A. “This counter affidavit is being filed only for the
purpose of assisting this Hon’ble Court and to satisfy this Hon’ble Court that
the impugned Sections of the IT Act neither seeks to curtail nor the Central
Government desires any interpretation which seeks to curtail any of the
fundamental rights guaranteed to the citizens including the right under Article
19(1)(a) i.e. fundamental right to free speech and expression.
B. This counter affidavit seeks to point out the necessity and
desirability of the provisions which are challenged in these petitions and to
bring it on record that the usage of cyber space either by social media or
otherwise is not even remotely intended to be curtailed either totally or
partially at instance of Union of India.
C. Central Government encourages beneficial use of cyber space
and the Act only seeks to regulate the use of cyberspace which would fall
within any of and/ or all categories stipulated under Article 19(2) of the
Constitution of India.
D. That the penal provisions of the Act can never be
interpreted so as to take within its sweep political debate, any form of honest
decent, decent humour, political satire etc. With a view to avoid
possibility of any misconstruction of the expressions used in the penal
provisions of the Act, the Central Government has prepared an advisory /
guidelines to be strictly followed by law enforcement agencies which would
ensure that the honest and legal use of cyber space does not result into any
harassment to any citizen of the country.”
Thus in a layman’s language, the Government absolutely
respects the right to freedom of speech and expression on social media and has
no intention of curbing it. Only reasonable restrictions apply on social media,
as they do in routine normal day to day life in the physical world under
Article 19 (2) of the constitution of India. We will have to understand that we
cannot set a different standard of Public Morality for Speech & Expression
in Cyberspace from Speech in other mediums and in the Public Domain
It is important to understand
that Section 66A is in several parts and only a portion of it deals with issues
which can raise question of freedom of speech and expression.
During the course of oral
submissions also, it was categorically pointed out that the Central Government
shares the anxiety that expressions like “grossly offensive” etc. referred
above may be abused at some local level. The Central Government, therefore,
requested the Hon’ble Supreme Court that the said expressions be read confined
to Article 19(2) of the Constitution only and to ensure that no right of any
citizen is scuttled, the said phrases be narrowly tailored by the Hon’ble
Supreme Court itself to obviate any possibility of any abuse of any law
enforcing agency to scuttle the free speech and expression of the citizens.
There can be no parallel of our
stand on this matter with that of the previous UPA regime. We have in writing
confirmed that we stand for freedom of speech and expression, while the
previous UPA Govt tried to make this law an instrument to curb dissent, satire
and anything else which did not suit it. “
I have myself set an example by
standing up for free speech and rights of a teenager recently arrested at the
complain of Azam Khan for posting on Twitter and Facebook.
NNK/MD
(Release ID :117633)
