One compelling feature of the ongoing cases against sections of the IT Act is that the court is examining infirmity in the law, and not individual cases of infirmity in its implementation. Yesterday, when Justice Bobde pointed this out to Gopal Sankaranarayan, saying that "Nobody is defending the abuse of the law", Sankaranarayan, representing the petitioner Anoop K, said that: "There was no abuse of power. Palghar (case) was not an abuse of power, the law itself is abusive. Can the police officer wriggle out of doing what the law requires him to do? The law is abusive." Justice Bobde pointed out, on Section 69, that the converse is that one would allow grossly offensive content to be permitted on the Internet. Sankarnarayan responded, saying that by merely copypasting, the government is not satisfying the grounds of Article 19(2) of the Constitution, which provide for restrictions on free speech to be reasonable. "What you do by blocking is prohibition, not restriction. Even prohibition has to be reasonable to a nation. Which part of it is reasonable?" Readers should keep in mind that the court hasn't finished hearing the arguments, and the comments made don't necessarily have any bearing on the final judgment. Earlier in the day, the bench, comprising of Justice Chelameswar and Bobde, court questioned Sankaranarayan on whether the Internet as a medium necessitates a different law. This has come up frequently in past two days, as has the argument, from the petitioners, whether there is any need for the Section 66A…
