ICT Act offences

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 01:23:17 -0700

Hello,

One of the offences under Section 46 of the Information and
Communication Technologies Act 2001 is:

   Any person who uses an information and communication service, including
   telecommunication service for the purpose of causing annoyance,
   inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person shall commit an offence.

There was a ruling in another country about a similar law:

   'Our Constitution provides for liberty of thought, expression and belief.
    In a democracy, these values have to be provided within constitutional
    scheme," said Justice Nariman, pronouncing the verdict.

    "There is no nexus between public order and discussion or causing annoyance
    by dissemination of information. Curbs under Section 66A of the IT Act
    infringes on the public right to know."

    Calling the written word of the provision, which comprises terms such as
    '"annoying", "inconvenient" and "grossly offensive", vague, the apex court
     said: "What may be offensive to a person, may not be offensive
to others".'

Would two persons disagreeing with each other in messages on Facebook
be causing annoyance or inconvenience? Would the persons "liking"
those messages be causing annoyance or inconvenience?

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Tue Mar 24 2015 - 08:25:26 PST