Facebook case: Supreme Court asks Maharashtra Govt. to explain girls' arrest
New Delhi, Nov 30 (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to explain the circumstances under which its police arrested two girls from Palghar in Thane district for posting comments on Facebook.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J Chelameswar asked the state government to file its response within four weeks on the public interest litigation filed by a Delhi student.
The bench also made as parties the governments of West Bengal and Puducherry where similar incidents had happened in the recent past.
It also issued notice to the Delhi government along with them and sought their response within four weeks and posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati, referred to the guidelines which say that cases to be registered under the provision of the IT Act has to be decided by senior police officials
The law - Section 66 (A) of the IT Act - has been challenged by a law student named Shreya Singhal in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and violates freedom of speech.
Earlier this month, Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan had on Facebook questioned the shutdown of Mumbai for the funeral of Bal Thackeray.
The women were released on bail after a few hours; they had been charged with spreading hatred under the contentious section 66(A) of the IT Act; the case against them was dropped yesterday.