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The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Central Government that the copies of the Shreya Singhal v. Union of India [(2015) 5 SCC 1] judgment striking down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 should be made available to the Chief Secretaries of all the State Governments and the Union Territories. A bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Sanjay Kishan Kaul directed that the Chief Secretaries, in turn, will sensitize the police departments by sending copies of this judgment to the Director General of Police in each State. In addition, all the High Courts are directed to make the copy of the judgment available to all District Courts in the country. In this case, the Court heard a plea by NGO People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) which highlighted the continued use of Section 66A which has been scraped off. In its plea, PUCL has stated that despite the Supreme Court clearly and unequivocally held in Shreya Singhal case that Section 66A stands abolished, Section 66A of the IT Act continued to be applied in the legal system. Internet Freedom Foundation has shown in its recent working paper that the proceedings pending under Article 66A of the IT Act had not been terminated, and police throughout India have also continued to invoke them in the First Information Reports registered after the decision in Shreya Singhal case. Noting the disputes filed by the PUCL, the Supreme Court issued a warning to the Central Government on January 7 and requested its response. On Friday last week when the matter was heard, when the learned Attorney General KK Venugopal appeared before the court and suggested that a direction should be made to ensure that copies of Shreya Singhal's decision were available to all the District Courts by every High Court within the country. This was accepted by the Court. This should be done within a period of eight weeks from today. The Court proceeded to issue a further direction of its own that the Central Government should make copies of the Shreya Singhal judgment to the Chief Secretaries of all the State Governments and the Union Territories. This should be done within a period of eights weeks from today. The Chief Secretaries, in turn, will sensitize the police departments by sending copies of this judgment to the Director General of Police in each State. This should be done within a period of eights weeks thereafter.
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