The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a controversial law that made posting "offensive" comments online a crime punishable by jail, after a long campaign by defenders of free speech.
The Supreme Court said the 2009 amendment to India's Information Technology Act known as section 66A was unconstitutional and a restriction on freedom of speech.
"Section 66A is unconstitutional and we have no hesitation in striking it down," said justice RF Nariman, reading out the judgement. "The public's right to know is directly affected by section 66A."
Terming liberty of thought and expression as "cardinal", a bench of justice J Chelameswar and justice RF Nariman said: "The public's right to know is directly affected by section 66A of the Information Technology Act."
Elaborating the grounds for holding the provision as "unconstitutional", it said terms like "annoying", "inconvenient" and "grossly offensive", used in the provision are vague as it is difficult for the law enforcement agency and the offender to know the ingredients of the offence.
The bench also referred to two judgments of separate UK courts which reached different conclusions as to whether the material in question was offensive or grossly offensive.
"When judicially trained minds can reach on different conclusions" while going through the same content, then how is it possible for law enforcement agency and others to decide as to what is offensive and what is grossly offensive, the bench said, adding, "What may be offensive to a person may not be offensive to the other".
(the hindustan times)