Cases that will define the contours of Free Speech over the Internet in India

The Supreme Court of India is currently hearing a bunch of petitions, which will define the contours of Freedom of Expression over the Internet in India.

The Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi has been tracking the case and is collecting various documents relating to it.

The details and other information regarding the cases is available below. (The table is not exhaustive as we are still collecting information)

If you have any information or copy of petitions or submissions please mail them to sarvjeet.singh@nludelhi.ac.in

Name of the Case	Case Number	Lawyer Appearing	Petition	Written submission
Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (U.O.I.)	W.P. (Crl.) No. 167/2012	Mr. Soli Sorabjee Ms. Manali Singhal Mr. Ninad Laud Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi Mr. Abhikalp Pratap Singh	Available here	Available here
Common Cause (A Regd. Society) & Anr. v. U.O.I.	W.P. (C) No. 21/2013	Mr. Prashant Bhushan Mr. Pranav Sachdeva	Available here	Available here
Rajeev Chandrasekhar v. U.O.I. & Anr.	W.P. (C) No. 23/2013	Mr. Sajan Poovayya Mr. Priyadarshi Banerjee	Available here	Available here
Dilipkumar Tulsidas Shah v. U.O.I. & Anr.	W.P. (C) No. 97/2013
Peoples Union for Civil Liberties v. U.O.I. & Ors.	W.P. (Crl.) No. 199/2013	Mr. Sanjay Parikh Ms. Karuna Nundy Mr. Apar Gupta	Available here
Mouthshut.Com (India) Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. v. U.O.I. & Ors.	W.P. (C) No. 217/2013	Mr. Shyam Divan Ms. Mishi Choudhary Ms. Shagun Belwal Mr. Biju Nair	Available here and the synopsis is available here
Taslima Nasrin v. State of U.P. & Ors.	W.P. (Crl.) No. 222/2013		Available here
Manoj Oswal v. U.O.I. & Anr.	W.P. (Crl.) No. 225/2013
Internet and Mobile Association of India & Anr. v. U.O.I. & Anr.	W.P. (C) No. 758/2014	Mr. KK Venugopal Mr. Saikrishna Rajagopal Mr. J. Sai Deepak	Available here
Anoop M.K. v. U.O.I. & Ors.	W.P. (Crl.) No. 196/2014	Mr. Gopal Shankarnarayan Ms. Lakshmi Kaimal Mr. Vikramaditya Jha		Available here

Update on hearing

The final hearing in the matter is being heard by a Supreme Court bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and SA Bobde.

On the first day of the hearing (December 9, 2014) Mr. Soli Sorabjee completed his arguments on Section 66A of the IT Act in Shreya Singhal v. UOI and Mr. Prasanth Bhushan on Section 66A, 69A and 80 of the IT Act in Common Cause v. UOI. Mr. Sanjay Parikh started his arguments on behalf of PUCL in PUCL v UOI.

On the second day of the hearing (December 10, 2014) Mr. Parikh completed his arguments on Section 66A of the IT Act and Mr. Sajan Poovayya also on Section 66A of the IT Act in Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Mr. Gopal Shankarnarayan representing Anoop MK in Anoop MK v UOI has started his arguments of Section 66A and Section 69A.

The court had initially stated that it will hear the arguments on the statutory provisions (Sections 66A, 69A, 79 and 80) before coming to the delegated legislations, however today the Court agreed to hear the arguments on Section 79 and the rules framed under it together. However, the arguments on Rules framed under Section 69A will be taken up separately.

Over the next few days we will provide a detailed summary of the final hearings in the case

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