SC rejects PIL alleging presence of repealed section in IT law

The Supreme Court today refused to hear a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to notify that one of the provisions of the Information Technology Act has been struck down and it should not find a place in the statute book.
Section 66-A of IT Act, struck down by the apex court on March 24, 2015 as being unconstitutional, still finds a mention in the law books and strangely, some courts are still entertaining cases under the provision, the plea alleged.
The provision had provided power to arrest a person for posting allegedly "offensive" content on websites.
A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud dismissed the petition which claimed that people are still being convicted under the repealed provision.

"The Union of India has not cared to repeal Section 66-A of the IT Act, 2000 from the law book/Act. This resulted that the law publishers across the country are publishing latest editions of the IT Act containing Section 6-A.
"Since the Act contains annulled Section 66-A of the IT Act, the judges across the country are convicting the accused persons for the offence under section 66-A although the Supreme Court has way back in the year 2015 had struck down the same," the petition filed by Hyderabad resident Gopala Krishna Kalanidhi said.
The plea also claimed that certain magistrates in the country are 'oblivious' of the striking down of section 66-A.

"It is unfortunate that our judges are not aware of the latest position of the law laid down by this court and therefore, they are actually doing injustice while doing justice to the common people of India, the plea said.