Arrest under Section 66A to be made in accordance with Union Government guidelines: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today directed all the States to comply with the advisory guidelines issued by the Central Government before making arrests under Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000..A Division Bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Dipak Misra passed the order in an interim application filed by Shreya Singhal (CRL.MP nos. 11600 & 11601/2013) in the writ petition Shreya Singhal v. Union of India [WP (Crl) 167/2012]..Shreya Singhal had filed the interim application seeking the release of lawyer and PUCL activist Jaya Vindyala who had been arrested for her remarks on Facebook against Tamil Nadu Governor K. Rosaiah and Congress MLA Amanchi Krishna Mohan. Singhal also sought a direction from the Court to the State Governments to comply with Union Government’s directives..Since Vindyala had already been released on bail, the Court directed all the States to comply with Central Government’s advisory guidelines issued on January 9, 2013 pursuant to the direction of the Supreme Court. As per the said guidelines, an arrest under Section 66A requires prior approval of Inspector General of police in metropolitan area and Deputy Commissioner of police or Superintendent of police at the district level..Singhal had earlier approached the Court challenging the constitutional validity of Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000 after two girls had been arrested in Maharashtra for an offence under the said provision. They had put up Facebook posts against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s demise. The Court had issued notice to the Centre and 4 States in the matter. It would be heard along with another Public Interest Litigation filed by a Pune based industrialist seeking framing of regulations and guidelines for effective investigation of cyber crimes.