Offence: A Brief History - Open The Magazine openthemagazine.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from openthemagazine.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Dark spell lingers as India honours women waging war on witchcraft
By Pratap Chakravarty - RFI
Noah Seelam AFP/Archivos
Two Indian women recently received one of the country s highest civilian awards for their efforts to rescue women branded as witches. However, a spate of ritual killings eclipsed the Independence Day honours, which had been intended to send a powerful official message against the occult and wizardry.
Chhutni Mahato of Jharkhand state and Birubala Rabha from Assam were awarded the Padma Shri on 26 January, as India celebrated the 72nd anniversary of the republic.
They were honored for their campaign against witch hunting, prohibited by law in only eight of India s 28 states.
Dark spell lingers as India honours women waging war on witchcraft rfi.fr - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rfi.fr Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
INTRODUCTION:
In what is being termed as one of the most landmark judgments upholding the right to free speech in recent times, the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal and Ors. vs Union of India, struck down Section 66A of the Information & Technology Act, 2000. The ruling which is being lauded by the common man and legal luminaries alike, found the Cyber law provision to be open-ended, vague and unconstitutional owing to the restriction it caused to the Indian citizens right to free speech.
FLAWS IN S.66A:
The Bench primarily objected to the vague and ambiguous phrasing of S.66A that left it open to arbitrary application and misuse, in addition to the fact that S.66A was a cognizable offence, i.e. those who posted content that can be considered ‘offensive’ or ‘menacing’ could be arrested by the Police without a warrant, making this the most crucial drawback to this vaguely drafted provision. What essentially made this provision prone to inappropriate application was leaving