i said "I too admit that its a section that can easily be misused by authorities". I have/had no intention to justify IT minister wrt Section 66A or 66A(a). As a lawyer I know the consequences of such a provision and i have defended a case Under 66A(a) of the said Act. In the present form it is ambiguous and i doubt its constitutionality. Lets all hope SC is going to make it unconstitutional in future. I think even the GOI is thinking like that since they have issued Advisory on Implementation of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000 to the Chief Secretaries and the Director General of Police of all States/UTs. The advisory asks State governments not to allow the police to make arrests under Section 66A of the IT Act without prior approval from an officer not below the rank of Inspector General of Police in the metropolitan cities or Deputy Commissioner of Police or Superintendent of Police at the district level. Actually section 66 A is taken from Section 127 of the U.K. Communications Act, 2003 ( But in England House of Lords held that Parliament could not have intended to criminalise statements that one person may reasonably find to be polite and acceptable and another may decide to be ‘grossly offensive... we also expect the same from SC).
In the U.K., Section 127(1)(a) makes the sending of ‘matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’ an offence. The drafters of the 2009 amendments to the IT Act in India presumably omitted the words
‘indecent, obscene’ as Section 67 of the IT Act makes the publishing or transmittal of obscene material in electrical form an offence. The drafters should have also defined the word “grossly offensive” but they chose not to and this is the main issue with the Section.
I don't think even for a second that Mr. Kapil Sibal had drafted this section, I don't know who had done it but i seriously doubt he had drafted this after 2/3 shots of vodka martini.But IT/Law minister could have cured the defect, re drafted it, its crime to humanity not to do it. But let me tell you i personally feel that there is a requirement of a provision "like" Section 66 A and it should contain proper wordings with clear definitions and proviso adding safeguards like a prior approval from a judicial Magistrate/ District judge before taking cognizance under the section.
NB: @Extreme Gamer : Beware you can now be prosecuted U/S 66A for your usage against kapil sibal