Immediately withdraw cases registered under repealed Section 66A of IT Act: MHA to States, UTs

The Supreme Court found it “distressing”, “shocking” and terrible” that the provision was still being used to book people

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday asked the States and Union Territories to immediately withdraw the cases registered under the repealed-Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, days after the that it was being invoked even six years after the . The Supreme Court found it “distressing”, “shocking” and terrible” that the provision — held unconstitutional and a violation of free speech in the Shreya Singhal judgment authored by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman on March 24, 2015 — was still being used to book people. Through an advisory, the MHA asked the authorities in the States and Union Territories to direct all police stations not to register cases under the repealed provision and sensitise the law enforcement agencies for the compliance of the order issued by the Supreme Court.