According to Lawrence Liang of Alternative Law Forum (ALF), the arrest goes against the foundation on which the Constitution has been built.
In a turn of events that has left many activists, lawyers and the people seeing red, two young women from Mumbai were arrested for posting comments on Facebook, questioning the bandh in the wake of Bal Thackeray’s death.
The women were arrested after one of them posted a status on Facebook about Thackeray and the other liked the comment. Shortly after she posted the comment, 21-year-old Shaheen Dhadha’s uncle’s clinic was vandalised.
According to Lawrence Liang of Alternative Law Forum (ALF), the arrest goes against the foundation on which the Constitution has been built.
“No matter which section of the law they were charged against, arresting these girls for having voiced their views is in violation of Article 19(1), which speaks about the freedom of speech. There is no case here. The whole objective of this is to simply harass people through the procedure. Even if the case is not taken by the courts, they have cases registered against them, they have to post bail, and it is harassment,” he said.
Liang added that while the press has institutional backing, no such body exists to protect the rights of those who blog or take to social networking websites to voice their opinions. “A Tweeter or a blogger has no such protection.”
To bring about fairness to the procedures, Liang believes major changes have to be made.
There is an urgent need to reform the law in two ways. First is to strictly define all that is considered ‘offensive’, because currently, it is too broadly explained. Second would be to reform the procedure through which someone can make complaints,” he said.
Pranesh Prakash from the Centre of Internet and Society believes that the Information Technology Act, 2000 is in major need of a overhaul.
“It is time the government decided to amend the IT Act to ensure that it safeguards civil and political rights—including the rights to privacy and freedom of expression—and closes existing loopholes that allow it to be used as a tool of harassment. Such amendment should be done through multi-stakeholder dialogue, involving civil society, industry, and government,” he asserted.
He also blamed the police for not stopping the attack on the clinic of the woman’s uncle.
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