When there is no law you don’t miss it, but when there is
bad law, it can wreak havoc with peoples lives. The gross misuse of IT act in
recent times makes you wonder whether it’s a misuse or abuse. I don’t wish to
elaborate too much on a subject on which reams of newsprint and countless words
in cyberspace have been used, but what is this nonsense about ‘’ Giving gross
offence’’ or ‘’ Causing annoyance’’. These are terms so vague and arbitrary
that the mind boggles. For instance, if I don’t like the color of your tie and
if I made a snide remark about your fashion sense on social media, and if you
happen to be a real hot-shot, you could pull strings and have me arrested for
the post. That is how ridiculous the provisions are in the IT act, sec-66a. In
fact the punishment for some actions are far more stringent in the virtual
world than they are in the real world !
What kind of embarrassment is this law where it puts us to be
in the same league as countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and North Korea when it
comes to online freedom. The present IT act was passed by the Vajpayee govt in
2000 amidst widespread din without any debate or discussion and some amendments
were made in 2008 by UPA govt, once again in the usual bedlam without any
thinking. This appallingly bad law is bad enough for the ordinary citizens who
are at the mercy of the average policemen; it is also a damning indictment of
our legislatures to legislate good laws which are more in tune with the demands
of a modern day society. We should not obey any law that is not worth obeying.
No comments:
Post a Comment