Hopes in India's legal system

The Supreme Court's scrapping of the ‘draconian’ section 66A of the Information Technology act keeps hope in the Indian legal system as well in free spirited young Indians, for the scrapping was the outcome of a public litigation filed by a 21 year old, Shreya Singhal from Delhi. 

 

Section 66A was a live ammunition in the hands of the government's force, with unclear detonation instructions, to target individuals who made free-speech on Internet and Internet related media and who published it on online media.  Targets on uncountable occasions were made to suffer hardships including jail terms and harassment. Shajan Skariah, editor of ''Marunadan Malayali'' a Malayalam language portal was facing twenty two such cases registered against him. He should be relieved and thanking Shreya. Free-speech is a constitutional right in India.

Shreya had returned home a few months ago after completing her three year course in Britain and she wonders, ‘’why nobody had so far challenged this particular provision of the IT Act,’’ me too Shreya. One would wonder further if section 66A were unconstitutional, and illegal as far as the citizens were concerned, then in whose interest was it enshrined among the legal pantheon.  

Shreya’s mother talks about her home experience, “We have always been very vocal in our family and encouraged our kids to do things they believe in.”

According to Sidhardha Varadarajan, our politicians loved 66A and he gives more details into their love affair with the section.