Citing the Supreme Court’s stern words against vulgarity in the Ranveer Allahbadia case, a parliamentary panel Wednesday asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to submit a note on the efficacy of existing laws in dealing with such cases and any amendment needed to bring online platforms under legal scrutiny.

The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey wrote to the ministry’s secretary S Krishnan over the issue.

It said, “In the light of the above and growing incidents of misuse of digital and social media platforms, the Ministry of Electronics and IT is requested to send a brief note to this committee on the efficacy of existing laws to deal with such cases and need to amend the existing laws/IT Act, 2000, in order to bring such platforms under legal scrutiny”.

This is needed to “safeguard the societal values and protect the dignity of women and children” while adhering to the creative expression and freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution, the missive added.

The ministry has been asked to submit its note by February 25 and treat the matter as “most urgent”, it added.

The committee asked the ministry to take note of the Supreme Court’s observation that sought to draw a line between free speech and vulgarity, as free speech does not grant any right to indulge in obscenity and that the remarks made at the show were offensive to societal norms.

The committee noted that Section 66A of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, which was “intended” to provide protection against offensive or insulting messages, speech or information made online by granting powers to the government to make arrests in cases of misuse of freedom of speech, was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The apex court on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia over his comments on a YouTube show while calling it “vulgar” and saying he had a “dirty mind” which put society to shame.

Several FIRs have been lodged against Allahbadia, popularly known as BeerBiceps, for the comment on parents and sex on comic Samay Raina’s YouTube show “India’s Got Latent”.

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