Within weeks after striking down Section 66A of Information Technology Act, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine the constitutional validity of Section 499 and 500 of IPC making defamation an offence punishable by up to a two-year jail term. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant asked the Centre to…
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…
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.…
Last week, former finance and home minister and senior Congress leader Palaniappan Chidambaram was under attack from one of his own senior colleagues in the Congress party. Former law minister Hans Raj Bharadwaj squarely attacked him for being responsible and the force behind the draconian section 66A of the Information Technology Act which was quashed…
All those concerned with free speech are rejoicing. The recent Supreme Court judgment regarding Section 66A of the Information Technology Act is, indeed, a ringing endorsement of basic rights, and a strong statement against arbitrary curbs on freedom of expression. In an act of not unusual hypocrisy, major political parties have welcomed the judgment. That…