Catergory

Section66A

SC’s direction: Stop prosecuting people under the unconstitutional S.66A

SC has issued important directions to ensure that people are not prosecuted under S.66A, which was struck down in Shreya Singhal. This significant order is a result of sustained effort by PUCL which was provided legal support by IFF.
12 October, 2022
4 min read

SC directs errant States to take remedial measures regarding pending 66A cases

Supreme Court expressed displeasure after several States & High Courts admitted that S.66A was still being enforced in their jurisdiction.
06 September, 2022
4 min read

Featured

Spooked by the Zombie? Ministry of Home Affairs issues notification directing all S.66A cases to stop

Prompted by our application, the Ministry of Home Affairs, on July 14, 2021 issued a notification directing all law enforcement authorities to stop registering new cases under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and to immediately withdraw all pending cases.
15 July, 2021
4 min read

Featured

PUCL approaches Supreme Court seeking directions against continued prosecutions under the unconstitutional Section 66A

Supreme Court issues notice in PUCL's application seeking directions against continued enforcement of Section 66A. IFF provided legal assistance to PUCL.
05 July, 2021
5 min read

We write to the Supreme Court e-Committee with CDL to improve the eCourts platform

We write to Supreme Court e-Committee highlighting the difficulties we faced on eCourt platform while building the Zombie Tracker. We have also provided our recommendations which seek to enable others to conduct data-driven research of judicial trends.
12 May, 2021
5 min read

How A Bill Becomes A Zombie? The Journey of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000

Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, was enacted into the statute through an amendment in 2008. The section penalised sending "offensive messages" via online communication. In this post we trace the journey of Section 66A of the IT Act from 2008 to 2020.
18 May, 2020
8 min read

66A Zombies continue to menace Free Speech on the Internet #ZombieTracker

Despite repeated directions by the Supreme Court, that all pending cases under S. 66A of the Information Technology Act be closed and also that no fresh charges may be registered, the provision continues to be invoked across the country.
28 April, 2020
4 min read

No more Section 66A Cases? We are building a "Zombie Tracker" with Civic Data Labs! #AgamiChallenge

Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of India in March, 2015. This section was vague and lead to arbitrary arrests of young college students, a cartoonist and many other social media users. Hence, the judgement came as a huge relief. It meant that the unconstitutional Section 66A would not be able to used in future and even pending cases would be closed. But, this did not happen to our horror. The problem is the implementation I
09 September, 2019
3 min read

Section 66A bites ‘zombie’ dust. SC issues fresh directions. #RightToMeme #Section66A

Yesterday, February 15, 2019, a series of directions were issued by the Court to not only close existing Section 66A cases but also prevent fresh registrations. This is a tremendous victory against the dead Section 66A.
16 February, 2019
4 min read

Supreme Court issues notice to check any 66A Cases #RightToMeme #Section66A

Supreme Court issues notice to check any 66A Cases #RightToMeme #Section66A
07 January, 2019
4 min read

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