No arrest for posts on social sites without permission : SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that no person should be arrested for posting objectionable comments on social networking sites without taking prior permission from senior police officials. A The apex court, which refused to pass an order for a blanket ban on the arrest of a person for making objectionable comments on websites, said state governments should ensure strict compliance of the Centre's January 9 advisory which said that a person should not be arrested without taking permission from senior police officials.

"We direct the state governments to ensure compliance with the guidelines (issued by Centre) before making any arrest," a bench of justices B.S.Chauhan and Dipak Misra said. It said the court cannot pass an order for banning all arrests in such cases as operation of Section 66A (pertaining to objectionable comments) of the Information Technology Act has not been stayed by the apex court which is examining its constitutional validity.

The Supreme Court's reiteration came in response to a petition filed over the arrest of a Hyderabad-based woman activist, who was sent to jail over her Facebook post in which certain "objectionable" comments were made against Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah and Congress MLA Amanchi Krishna Mohan. After filing of the petition, she was released by a district court at Hyderabad.

Jaya Vindhyala, the state general secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), was arrested on May 12 under section 66A of the IT Act for the "objectionable" post. According to the police, she had also allegedly distributed pamphlets making objectionable allegations against Rosaiah and Mohan before posting the comments online.

The matter was mentioned before the bench by law student Shreya Singhal, seeking an urgent hearing in the case, saying the police are taking action in such matters even though a PIL challenging validity of section 66A is pending before the apex court.