Kapil Sibal says Facebook arrests wrong, mulls change in IT law to prevent misuse
if we need to put guidelines in place or should we prescribe that the power has to be exercised by a high-level officer and not left to a sub-inspector. All these matters will be discussed and if we believe that this law is so grossly inadequate or the law in every situation is liable to be misused, we may even go for a substitute,” Sibal said.
“But what that substitute should be, we don’t know,” he added. “Because that substitute must also serve a purpose. We can’t allow menacing threats also to be made through the Internet. There has to some law.”
It was important, the minister said, to strike a balance between freedom of speech and expression, and interests of the individual. “There are restrictions... How the restrictions are to be couched is to be decided. But I am sure we will be able to do it,” he said.
Sibal stressed the need to educate the police on the law.
“That problem is there... the cops are not aware of many laws,” he said. “But in a mature democracy, as we grow, officials get sensitised. The (instances of) abuse come(s) down. Those affected by the abuse will ask questions of those abusing the law. I am sure instances like the recent one (in Maharashtra) where there is an outcry against the misuse, people also get sensitised, as do the officials.”
Sibal, who is also a renowned lawyer, said that the two women in Palghar — Shaheen Dhada, who posted that the shutdown after Thackeray’s
