Writ Petition challenging the validity of section 66A, IT Act- in salute of Mumbai girl [1 Attachment]

[Amitabh Thakur]

 
Friends,

Today I and wife social activist Dr Nutan
Thakur have filed a writ petition in Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench for
declaring section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000 as ultra vires. specially
the Fundamental Right to expression under Article 19(1)(a) and other rights
related with life and liberty enshrined in Chapter III of the Constitution 

We say in the petition that section 66A IT Act information encompasses any message or
information that is offensive or has menacing character or causes annoyance,
inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation,
enmity, hatred, or ill will. These words have not been defined in the IT Act
and are extremely vague, wide, all-pervasive, confusing, lax, incongruent,
slack and ambiguous  which has the
possibility of being misused and abused as is being claimed presently in many
cases all across the Nation.

 
We have specially cited examples of Shaheen Dadha arrest in Bal
Thackeray Facebook post, Ravi Srinivasan arrest by Puducherry police in October
2012 for having tweeted against Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti
Chidambaram and a Kolkata professor, Ambikesh Mahapatra, being arrested in
April 2012 for posting anti Mamata-Banerjee cartoons on social networking sites
for alleged misuse.


We have said that because of the above-reasons section 66A
is against the fundamental right of expression under Article 19(1)(a) and other
rights related with life and liberty. Hence, they have prayed for this section
to be declared ultra-vires. This is our salute to the young Mumbai girl Shaheen Dadha.
Asok Pande is the
counsel in this case, which is to be heard on 23 November 2012.


I attach a copy of the Writ Petition for your kind perusal and your valuable suggestions, dear friends. 


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ux-LuuEBY8r3bNFCnsc47yyu39EDTqksYP9BeCuA1Ck/edit

Amitabh Thakur
Lucknow
# 94155-34526

[Vinita Vishwas Deshmukh]

Dear Mr Thakur
congratulations for this.
I have started an online petition on the issue and I request you, Nutanji
and all members of the Anti-Bribery campaign to sign it. Following is my
appeal:
*Pl sign this petition to save us citizens from being jailed just because
we give our views on Twitter and Facebook. Pl forward this link to your
friends and tweet too:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/appeal-to-prime-minister-manmohan-singh-to-amend/
*
tks
cheers and warm rgds
vinita

Vinita Deshmukh
Senior Journalist
98230 36663
Consulting Editor, MoneyLife (www.moneylife.in)
w <http://www.intelligentpune.org>ww.truecoloursofpune.blogspot.com
co-author of the book`To The Last Bullet'
Convener, RTI Forum For Instant Information (RFII)
Convener, Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan

**
[Attachment(s) <#13b22ec8c680a61e_TopText> from Amitabh Thakur included
below]
* *
Friends,
Today I and wife social activist Dr Nutan Thakur have filed a writ
petition in Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench for declaring section 66A
of the Information Technology Act 2000 as ultra vires. specially the
Fundamental Right to expression under Article 19(1)(a) and other rights
related with life and liberty enshrined in Chapter III of the Constitution
We say in the petition that section 66A IT Act information encompasses any
message or information that is offensive or has menacing character or
causes annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury,
criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will. These words have not
been defined in the IT Act and are extremely vague, wide, all-pervasive,
confusing, lax, incongruent, slack and ambiguous which has the
possibility of being misused and abused as is being claimed presently in
many cases all across the Nation.
We have specially cited examples of Shaheen Dadha arrest in Bal Thackeray
Facebook post, Ravi Srinivasan arrest by Puducherry police in October 2012
for having tweeted against Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son
Karti Chidambaram and a Kolkata professor, Ambikesh Mahapatra, being
arrested in April 2012 for posting anti Mamata-Banerjee cartoons on social
networking sites for alleged misuse.
We have said that because of the above-reasons section 66A is against
the fundamental right of expression under Article 19(1)(a) and other rights
related with life and liberty. Hence, they have prayed for this section to
be declared ultra-vires. This is our salute to the young Mumbai girl
Shaheen Dadha.
Asok Pande is the counsel in this case, which is to be heard on 23
November 2012.
I attach a copy of the Writ Petition for your kind perusal and your
valuable suggestions, dear friends.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ux-LuuEBY8r3bNFCnsc47yyu39EDTqksYP9BeCuA1Ck/edit
Amitabh Thakur
Lucknow
# 94155-34526