Allahabad High Court Rules: Liking a Social Media Post Not a Crime Under IT Act Section 67

Allahabad High Court Rules: A recent decision of the Allahabad High Court in Imran Khan v. State of UP and Another has ruled that liking a social media post never amounts to publishing or transmitting the said post and will not attract Section 67 of the IT Act.

The provision penalizes any person using a computer resource for publishing or transmitting any material considered "lascivious" or availing of "prurient interest."

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In his observations, he stated: "A post or message is said to be published when it is posted, and a post or message is said to be transmitted when it is shared or retweeted."

"In the present case, it is alleged that there is material in the case diary showing that the applicant has liked the post of one Farhan Usman for unlawful assembly, but liking a post will not amount to publishing or transmitting the post, therefore, merely liking a post will not attract Section 67 I.T. Act.," the Court ruled.

The Court was dealing with a petition seeking the quashing of a case against a man named Imran Khan, who had liked a post by one Chaudhari Farhan Usman. Usman's post referred to a protest gathering that would be assembling near the collectorate to to hand over a memorandum to the President of India.

Khan was accused of "provocative messages on social media, which resulted in the assembly of approximately 600-700 persons belonging to the Muslim community for organizing procession without permission."

The same, as per the police, caused a serious threat to breach of peace. Besides invoking provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Uttar Pradesh police had also booked the accused Imran Khan under Section 67 of the IT Act.

His counsel told the Court that no such content was found on his Facebook account. However, the police claimed he had deleted it, but similar content was found on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.

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From the material on record, the Court found that Khan had merely liked a message published by another person. The same will not attract Section 67 of IT Act or any other criminal offence, it opined.

"The other circumstance is that it discusses the Section 67 I.T. Act on obscene material but profane material should not be brought for discussion."

"Even otherwise Section 67 of the I.T. Act is for the obscene material and not for provocative material. The words 'lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest' mean relating to sexual interest and desire, therefore, Section 67 I.T. Act does not prescribe any punishment for other provocative material."

The Court concluded that no offence was made out against Khan and consequently quashed all the proceedings against him.

"Having heard learned counsel for the applicant and having perused the record, I do not find any material which could connect the applicant with any objectionable post, as there is no offensive post available in the Facebook and Whatsapp accounts of the applicant," the single judge reasoned in the judgment dated April 17.

Advocates Abhishek Ankur Chaurasia and Diwan Saifullah Khan were representatives of the petitioner.

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