The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a plea seeking explanation from the Uttar Pradesh Police on the circumstances under which a Class XII student was arrested for allegedly posting on Facebook ‘objectionable’ comments on senior Samajwadi Party leader and state minister Azam Khan.
The plea will be heard by a bench comprising Justices AR Dave, J Chelameswar and Kurian Jospeh.
On Thursday, a court in Rampur granted bail to the 19-year-old youth.
A local court had on Wednesday sent him to 14-day judicial custody.
The youth was booked under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act which has been challenged and the judgement was reserved by the apex court on February 26.
The present application questioning the arrest of Bareilly youth was filed by a Delhi-based girl and law student Shreya Shingal, who was the first person to file a PIL challenging the validity of Section 66A.
She has also sought amendment in Section 66A of the Act, after two girls — Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan — were arrested in Palghar in Thane district as one of them posted a comment against the shutdown in Mumbai following Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray’s death and the other ‘liked’ it.
The apex court had in 2013 said a person, accused of posting objectionable comments on social networking sites, cannot be arrested without police getting permission from senior officers.
The direction had come in the wake of numerous complaints of harassment and arrests, sparking public outrage.
PTI