The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that no one should be prosecution under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000, which was struck down as unconstitutional by the Court in 2015 in the Shreya Singhal Case.
The Court issued a slew of directions to the Director Generals of Police and Home Secretaries of all States to ensure that reference to Section 66A is removed from all pending cases. The Court also directed that the bareacts of the IT Act published should adequately inform the readers that Section 66A has been invalidated.
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24 April 2025
Supreme Court, on Wednesday, passed directions prohibiting the prosecution of individuals in cases alleging violation of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The bench comprising Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Ajay Rastogi was hearing a writ petition filed by the NGO ‘Peoples Union for Civil Liberties’ (PUCL) which highlighted the issue of Section 66A IT Act being invoked despite the judgment in Shreya Singhal v. UOI (2015) 5 SCC 1.
In its last hearings, the court had asked the Union Government to get in touch with the Chief Secretaries of the States where FIRs under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act were continuing to be registered despite the provision being declared as unconstitutional by the Court in 2015. The Court had asked the Union to impress upon such states to take “remedial measures as soon as possible”.
