A day after the Supreme Court struck down the controversial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claims he has been against it all along. He has posted his speech from three years ago in the Rajya Sabha. In the speech, he raises concerns over the misuse of the provisions of the legislation.
Here is an excerpt from his speech:
Powers are, normally, assumed under these rules on the assumption that they won’t be misused. We feel the pinch only when they are misused. Therefore, I would urge the (IT) Minister to kindly reconsider the language of the kind of restraints that he wants to bring as a result of this notification.
If I may just in a nutshell say, I am with the architecture that the minister is creating, because, if...there is some kind of a communal or caste problem, the internet can go viral and you can have a frenzy in the society, certain kind of information which creates disorder in the society may have to be restrained.
But then, to say, take that power and then extend it by the use of such words where legitimate expression may become difficult, there would be apprehension.
Jaitley made these remarks while participating in a debate on Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011, under the Information Technology Act, 2000, in the Upper House on May 17, 2012.
The guidelines were introduced by the previous UPA government to fix accountability of websites, internet and other companies for hosting information that may be conceived as offensive.
Supreme Court yesterday struck down Section 66A of IT Act saying it was “unconstitutional” and could have a “chilling effect” on freedom of speech and expression.
The then leader of opposition, Jaitley in the May 2012 session of the Rajya Sabha had agreed with the architecture of the guidelines to check misuse of internet to fuel communal frenzy, but had raised a number of apprehensions regarding to provision, as stated in his Facebook post.
To read his full speech click here.
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