No one can be arrested for website comments without nod from senior officers

Court says states must ensure a person should not be arrested without taking permission from police officials of the rank of IGP or DCP or SP level

A person allegedly posting objectionable comments on social networking sites cannot be arrested by the police without getting permission from senior officers, the Supreme Court today directed in the wake of numerous complaints of harassment that sparked public outrage.

The apex court, which refused to pass an interim order for blanket ban on the arrest of a person for making objectionable comments on websites, said the state governments must ensure strict compliance of Centre's advisory which said that a person should not be arrested without taking permission from police officials of the rank of IGP or DCP or SP level.

With today's order, the advisiory issued by the Centre on January 9 becomes mandatory for the state government to comply with.

"We direct the state governments to ensure compliance with the guidelines (issued by Centre) before making any arrest," a bench of justices B S Chauhan and Dipak Misra said.

It said that the court cannot restrain state governments from making any such arrest as operation of section 66A (pertaining to objectionable comments) of the Information Technology Act has not been stayed by the apex court which is still examining its constitutional validity.

In view of public outrage over people being arrested for making comments or liking posts on Facebook, Centre had on January 9 issued advisory to all states and UTs asking them not to arrest a person in such cases without prior approval of a senior police officer.

The advisory issued by the Centre says that, "State governments are advised that as regard to arrest of any person in complaint registered under section 66A of the Information Technology Act, the concerned police officer of a police station may not arrest any person until she/he has obtained prior approval of such arrest from an officer, not below the rank of Inspector General of Police (IGP) in metropolitan cities or of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) or Superintendent of Police (SP) at district level, as the case may be.