Sec 66 A might make a comeback in a different avatar, if these people have their way

The Supreme Court may have struck down the draconian, super abused Section 66A of the IT Act, but if some people within the current Government have their way, it could soon make a comeback, in a different avatar hitherto. Yes, you heard that right.

Just a few hours after the apex court’s landmark judgment, some members of the current government are toying with the idea of coming out with a similar provision, that will effectively curb any ‘menace’ on the internet.

Infact, while welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to scrap section 66A of the IT Act, Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar said the government now needs to replaces the entire intermediary rules under the law and come up with a multi stakeholder discussion to come up with new rules.

"I think the next step for this government should be to come up with a new 66A after some consultation," Chandrashekhar told the Economic Times. "And since, it will be done through consultations, it will give everybody the comfort that it is addressing misuse of internet, but at the same time preserving and respecting the right to express freely for lots of innocent users on the internet."

In his PIL in 2012, Chandrashekhar had argued that section 66A is unconstitutional because in the name of securing the Internet and in the name of preventing the abuse of internet, government and government bureaucrats were overreaching and trespassing into the constitutional right of free speech.

"The problem with Section 66A is that it criminalizes without a proper definition of the crime. In the section it will say offensive, without a threshold of evidence before criminalization. Section 66A is the only section that criminalizes a wide range of activities independent of the mental state of the person sending electronic communication," he told ET.

He said the previous government did not take any action to replace section 66A despite assurances. "When I started arguing over this issue in 2012 with the government, when Kapil Sibal was the IT minister, I suggested to him to cancel 66A and come up with a new 66A. It was then brought to the parliament and debated and Sibal gave an assurance in parliament that we will do a public consultation and multi stakeholder discussion on creating a new 66A. He did not," Chandrashekhar said.

He suggested given the government's focus on digital India, they are well within their rights to say that they'll come up with new set of intermediary rules to replace the ones from 2011, the ET report said.

"You need to keep the law order people on one side of the table, you need to keep NGOs and people from civil society on one side of the table and people from information technology on another side of the table and then through that process come up with openly intermediary guidelines that meet the public policy guidelines of security, abuse of the internet and internet proliferation and innovation," Chandrashekhar said.

(Image Courtesy: Commentary.com)