The Supreme Court ruling striking down Section 66A of the IT Act has put Kapil Sibal in a spot. Sibal, a top lawyer himself, was the Minister for Science and Technology in 2008, and was responsible for the drafting of Section 66A.
Embarrassingly, Sibal’s own Congress colleagues have also welcomed the Supreme Court ruling, most prominently, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram
Though, he doesn’t directly accuse Sibal, speaking to PTI, Chidambaram criticised the former provision itself -
I welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court holding that Section 66A of the IT Act is unconstitutional. The section was poorly drafted and was vulnerable. It was capable of being misused and, in fact, it was misused.
– P Chidambaram
Congress MP from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor also joined the chorus and tweeted: Glad the Supreme Court has struck down Section 66A of the IT Act, which was liable to misuse (&has been abused). Freedom must not be curbed.
Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari, himself a former Information and Broadcasting Minister, also supported the Supreme Court decision -
The Supreme Court made an appropriate decision, Section 66A was the antithesis of freedom of speech and expression. It gave too much power in hands of law enforcement agencies, it’s a welcome decision.
– Manish Tewari
Describing the law as ‘vague in its entirety’ and ‘unconstitutional’, the Supreme Court earlier in the day struck down the Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which was introduced in 2008.
Deflect Blame to the BJP
Some Congress leaders also tried to deflect the criticism from the UPA government, and Sibal, by underlining the fact that the present BJP government too had backed the “flawed” law.
Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha took to Twitter and said: “To all those bhakts criticizing @KapilSibal, Modi Sarkar stoutly defended continuity of #Sec66A in SC . Smell the coffee beans, folk.”
In another tweet, he said, “Narendra Modi turned his DP (display picture) black to protest against #Sec66A. Then he did his classic U-turn to argue for it in Supreme Court as PM.”
While the central government’s additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta did defend Section 66A in Court, post the ruling, BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli too supported the SC’s decision and claimed that the ruling party is in favour of “honest criticism”.
“A landmark day for freedom of speech and expression,” BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told reporters.
(With inputs from PTI)
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