The circular that came a day after MHA’s directive to all the states to withdraw all cases booked under Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000 calls for prompt legal action against unlawful contents, communal posts, etc” that could have “detrimental effects on law and order”
TFM Desk
The Manipur government has directed the superintendents of police of all the districts including SP of CID (CB) and (SB) to monitor all the posts, uploads, comments posted in all the dialects of Manipur on various social media platforms.
The additional director general of police (intelligence), Manipur had issued a circular in this regard on July 15. The ADGP (Int) also directed the SPs to bring to the notice of the ADGP or IGP (Int) whenever “unlawful contents, communal posts, etc” are uploaded or found circulating on social media platforms which could have “detrimental effects on law and order”.
While the Social Media Cell of the Police Department is to be headed by the ADGP (Int), in his absence by IGP (Int), all the district SPs including SPs of CID (CB)/(SB) are members of the cell. The members have been directed to monitor all the contents on social media platforms.
“Prompt legal actions should be initiated by the concerned SP whenever required,” the circular added.
Further, the SPs have been directed to establish a Social Media Monitoring Cell in their respective unit immediately, for effective monitoring of the social media platforms and for taking prompt legal action.
All district SPs will have to submit a fortnightly report on the findings of the cell and action taken report to ADGP (Int) on the 3rd and 18th of every month, starting the second fortnight of July, 2021.
MHA Circular
Interestingly, the circular came a day after the Ministry of Home Affairs directed all the states to withdraw any cases booked under Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000 and not to register any cases further under the repealed section of the Act.
The advisory to all the chief secretaries and DGPs of all the states and UTs also directed to sensitise the law enforcing agencies for the compliance of the order issued by the Supreme Court on March 24, 2015.
“It has been brought to our notice through an application in Supreme Court that FIRs are still being lodged by some police authorities under the struck down provision of Section 66A of IT Act, 2000. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has taken a very serious view in the matter,” the circular added.
66A of IT Act
Introduced by the then UPA government in 2008, the amendment to the IT Act gave the government power to arrest and to imprison an individual for allegedly “offensive and menacing” online posts, and was passed without discussion in Parliament.
The court’s 2015 decision in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India was a landmark judicial pushback against state encroachment on freedom of speech and expression. “Section 66A is cast so widely that virtually any opinion on any subject would be covered by it …and if it is to withstand the test of constitutionality, the chilling effect on free speech would be total,” the apex court said.
The Supreme Court on July 5 issued a notice to the Union government on the use of Section 66A of the IT Act that was scrapped several years ago and said that it was “shocking” that the judgment striking down the law has not been implemented even now.
The notice came during the hearing of a plea filed by PUCL that pointed out that even after 7 years of the law being struck down, as of March 2021, a total of 745 cases are still pending and active before the district courts in 11 states, wherein the accused persons are being prosecuted for offences under Section 66A of the IT Act.
The plea is based on data collated by the Internet Freedom Foundation, which has been tracking cases under the “Zombie provisions” which have been declared invalid but are still being used by police to prosecute people.
It shows that even after March 2015, after the Shreya Singhal Judgment which struck down Section 66A, 1,307 cases were registered under the law.