SC to hear plea challenging arrest of boy for Facebook post on Azam Khan

NEW DELHI: The controversy arising out of the arrest of a Class XI student for allegedly uploading an "objectionable" Facebook post against Samajwadi Party strongman Azam Khan reached the Supreme Court on Thursday, with the top court agreeing to hear a plea for staying all proceedings against the boy.

Shreya Singhal, who had challenged the constitutional validity of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act and on which the court reserved its judgment, filed an application bringing the student's arrest to the court's notice.

Singhal's counsel sought an urgent hearing of the application before a bench of Justices AR Dave, J Chelameswar and Kurian Jospeh. But Uttar Pradesh additional advocate general Gaurav Bhatia informed the court that the arrested youth was released on bail and the court should not entertain Singhal's plea.

The boy was granted bail by the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Azad Singh in Rampur on two sureties of Rs 20,000 each on Thursday afternoon.

Singhal said the state must explain under what circumstances the boy was arrested after Khan's media in-charge Fasahat Ali lodged an FIR against him. She said the court should examine whether guidelines on this count had been followed or not. The bench agreed to hear the application on Friday.

On Monday evening, Rampur police had arrested the student of a reputed public school in Bareilly for uploading what they called an "objectionable" post against Khan.

According to the police, the student was booked under Section 66A of the IT Act and Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (public mischief) of the IPC

As the Class XI student stepped out of jail in Rampur after spending two nights behind bars, he asserted that he had not uploaded any objectionable post against UP minister Azam Khan and only shared it. "I appeal to the student community not to use Facebook, or else the minister's orders will land them inside jail," he said.