New Delhi: Supreme Court Tuesday gave a revolutionary judgment on Section 66A of Information Technology Act saying the clause struck at the root of liberty and freedom of expression.
The rule however, does not mean sending abusive messages through computer or communication device. A cyber culprit can still be sentenced under similar provisions of the IT Act, IPC and state-enacted provisions that criminalize harassment.
Srinath Nambudri, a software engineer by profession, will now spend one year in jail for harassing a woman colleague after she spurned his advances.
In December 2011, cyber cell of the CB-CID, had registered a case against Nambudri under various provisions including Section 66A of IT Act (sending offensive and menacing electronic mail).
READ MORE: Section 66A quashed: Here's why citizens can still be arrested for online posts
Despite that the Supreme Court said Section 66A of the IT Act was unconstitutional and struck it down, a city court, perhaps following the dictum, absolved him from conviction under the section. But he was found guilty of charges under Section 67 (punishment for publishing obscene material in electronic form) of the IT Act, 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation, if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt) and 509 (uttering any word or making any gesture to insult the modesty of a woman) of IPC, along with Section 4 of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, 1998.
READ MORE: 10 cases where Section 66A of IT Act was misused
Nambduri was working as a software engineer at TCS, Siruseri. He was attracted to a colleague, and expressed his love to her. When she spurned his advances, an infuriated Nambudri started sending several obscene and derogatory emails to her from April 2011.
On one occasion, when the woman went to the US on an official visit, he emailed malicious contents about her to the company's head. Nambudri also sent a morphed nude picture of the woman to her brother. "He continued to stalk and eve-tease the woman electronically for several months," said special public prosecutor Mary Jayanthi.
