The Supreme Court today ruled on a series of cases challenging the IT Act, including Section 66A (3 years in prison for offensive statements online), Section 79 and its rules (forcing intermediaries to take down online content) and Section 69 (blocking of online content). The bench, consisting of Justices Chelameswar and Rohinton Fali Nariman struck down Section 66A of the IT Act, ruling against the Central government, which had defended the section. A number of cases of citizens arrested under Section 66A for posts on Facebook and Twitter have come up over the past 2-3 years: – May 2012: two Air India employees were arrested by the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police for allegedly posting lewd jokes about politicians, making derogatory comments against the Prime Minister and insulting the national flag in their Facebook posts. – September 2012: Heena Bakshi and Kamalpreet Singh had been arrested for allegedly posting abusive comments on Chandigarh traffic police’s Facebook page, while the Supreme Court of India recently upheld a Bangalore-based couple’s right to vent their frustrations on the Bangalore Police Facebook page after an officer filed an FIR against them. – September 2012: Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested for publishing cartoons that a complainant deemed insulted the constitution of the country. – October 2012: A 45-year-old industrialist from Pondicherry was arrested for allegedly posting "offensive" messages on Twitter targeted at then Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram. The CID's crime branch wing complaint said that the industrialist had posted these messages thrice on Twitter in…
