Days after it struck down the much-abused Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, the Supreme Court Tuesday sought the government’s stand on de-criminalising defamation on the ground that the penal provisions unreasonably constrict the freedom of speech. “Defamation is an offence under the Indian Penal Code, but we need to delve on whether it…
Punjab government Chief secretary on Monday held a video conferencing session with all the Deputy Commissioners to review the progress of implementation of various eGovernance projects in the state. Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal issued directions to Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to complete all the pending eGovernance projects in time-bound manner so that essential public services could…
Two Judge Bench of the Supreme Court [Dipak Mishra and P.K.Pant.JJ] Today issued notice to Centre in a batch of PILs including the one filed by Subramanian Swamy to de-criminalize the Defamation [S.499/500 of Indian Penal code. Swamy’s plea was based on the following main contentions; “(a) The provisions contained in Sections 499 and 500 IPC,…
Shreya Singhal, who was among the first to ask India’s courts to toss out a law criminalizing “grossly offensive” content online, said she thought hate speech and defamation should still be considered crimes. India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, saying its ban on statements that could cause…
It is creditable that SC has attempted to balance intermediary liability with freedom of expression in Shreya Singhal case, but new procedural safeguards are required. The jubilation with which the Shreya Singhal case has been greeted is justified on several counts, most of them to do with free speech jurisprudence and the criminalisation of speech…
On Monday the Regional Passport Office in the city issued the 20,00,000th passport under the Passport Seva Project (PSP). The project was an ambitious e-governance initiative as a part of National e-governance plan. It was initiated at the Lalbagh Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in May 2010. According to an official estimation, the RPO Karnataka issued…
Punjab government Chief secretary today held a video conferencing session with all the Deputy Commissioners to review the progress of implementation of various e-governance projects in the state. Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal issued directions to Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to complete all the pending e-governance projects in time-bound manner so that essential public services could be…
Pitching for his ambitious Digital India Programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the nation needs to move towards mobile governance, which would not only ensure transparency but also bring accountability. “We are giving importance to Digital India and want to move towards mobile governance, by which good governance will come naturally and there…
With an aim to reduce project costs, the government has decided to give preference to open source software (OSS) over proprietary in e-governance procurements. “The government of India shall endeavour to adopt open source software in all e-governance systems implemented by various government organisations as a preferred option in comparison to closed source software (CSS),”…
Two Singaporean men have been arrested for staging a weekend protest outside the government complex that houses the offices of the president and prime minister, police said Monday. The men, aged 24 and 25, “turned up at the front gate of the Istana with placards” on Saturday afternoon, a Singapore Police Force spokesman told AFP.…