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The petitioner Nand Laal Singh Yadav filed a criminal misc. writ petition before this high court for quashing of the First Information Report registered under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The court had ordered the IO to be physically present along with records and his explanation and also stayed the investigation and arrest of the petitioner till such date. In view of such order, the IO had appeared and filed an affidavit stating that except offence punishable under Section 66A of Information Technology Act 2000, no other offence is disclosed against the petitioner. As section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000, had been declared ultra vires by the Apex Court in Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India, (2015) 5 SCC 1, the impugned first information report is liable to be quashed and is hereby quashed.
The court while entertaining this petition passed the following order:-
We are amazed that despite Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 having been declared ultra vires by the Apex Court in Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India, (2015) 5 SCC 1 yet F.I.R's are being registered in our State under the said provision. Taking cognizance of the aforesaid illegality, the Apex Court in Peoples' Union For Civil Liberties vs. Union of India and Others, W.P. (Crl) No.199/2013 passed the following order on 15.2.2019:-
"The learned Attorney General appears before us and has made a concrete suggestion, which we accept. The suggestion is that copies of this Court's judgment in 'Shreya Singhal v. Union of India' [(2015) 5 SCC 1] will be made available by every High Court in this country to all the District Courts. This should be done within a period of eight weeks from today. Also, we direct the Union Government to make available copies of this judgment to the Chief Secretaries of all the State Governments and the Union Territories. This should be done within a period of eight weeks from today. The Chief Secretaries will, in turn, sensitise the police departments in this country by sending copies of this judgment to the Director-General of Police in each State, within a period of eight weeks thereafter. The application stands disposed of accordingly."
Justice Manoj Mishra and Justice Anil Kumar also held that prima facie the action of registering FIR under section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000, is in complete disregard for the orders of the Hon’ble Apex Court. They could have summoned the senior police officials but refrain from doing so in view of the current pandemic. The court while allowing the petition, quashed the FIR.
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