Madras HC directs officials to curb online sale of crackers

Citing the last year ban on online sale of crackers, the Madras High Court on Friday directed authorities to shut down websites, where fireworks are sold.

Justice P D Audikesavalu passed the order on a contempt petition by a cracker seller against the Tamil Nadu government for not implementing the ban order even after repeated representations.

On October 16 last year, the court passed an interim order, on the plea filed by the petitioner, banning online sale of fire crackers till further orders.

The petitioner pointed out that the interim order was still operational.

He submitted that he made a representation to the state government to implement the ban order immediately and take steps to shut down the websites selling crackers online.

But, the authorities failed to take action against such sale, following which he approached the court.

When the plea came up, the state government submitted that a letter was sent to the cyber law division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology seeking to block a list of websites, which were found to be involved in online sale of firecrackers.

However, the request was rejected by the authority stating that the request did not fall under the scenarios, including defence of India, sovereignty and integrity of India, security of state, public order or for preventing incitement to commission of any cognizable offense, which are required to shut down a website, the state said.

The Centre submitted that subsequent to the high court order, the Supreme Court on October 31, 2018 passed an order regarding sale of crackers and that the directions include ban against sale of crackers by e-commerce websites.

Recording the submissions, the judge said, "... the ministry is not justified in contending that the request for blocking of the websites does not fall under the specific scenario of the Information Technology Act, 2000, in as much as the ban on sale of crackers online would fall within the ambit of public order, especially when the apex court has passed specific orders to that effect."