Following the quashing of Section 66A of the IT Act, the Supreme Court of India this week suggested that there should be a new law to regulate social media to counter malicious and defamatory messages circulated online, reports The Times of India. Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant said Parliament should bring a new law to regulate the social media. "Section 66A was quashed because it was not properly drafted and was vague. We can ask Parliament to bring a new law. We have earlier also suggested Parliament to enact a law on other issues and we can suggest it to pass a legislation on this issue also," the apex court said. The justices made the remarks while hearing a number of cases challenging the criminality of defamation laws. In March, the Supreme Court struck down the controversial Section 66 A and declared it unconstitutional. Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman read that Section 66A makes no distinction on whether the communication has any impact on public order. The clear and present danger test and the public disorder test ought to be a prerequisite. What may be offensive to one may not be to another, what may be annoying to one may not be to another. That is what renders 66a unconstitutional and vague. It's also worth remembering that there were reports that the home ministry was seriously considering bringing back Section 66A of the IT Act, 2008 albeit in a slightly different avatar. The ministry had set up a committee to look into how national…
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