A writ petition was filed with the High Court yesterday challenging the legality of Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act which has come under severe criticism recently.
Zakir Hossain, an accused of a case filed under this section with the cyber crimes tribunal in Dhaka, submitted the petition urging the HC to declare the section unconstitutional.
According to the section, if any person deliberately publishes or transmits false, obscene and derogatory information in the website or in any other electronic form, he or she will be sentenced to seven to 14 years’ imprisonment and fined with maximum Tk one crore.
Citing from the petition, Zakir’s lawyer Shishir Manir told The Daily Star that the section has clearly violated the constitutional provisions regarding equality before law, right to protection of law, protection of life and personal liberty, and freedom of thought, conscience and free speech.
The description of the offences under this section is vague and wide and, therefore, there is a scope for anybody to be harassed under this rule, he said, adding that the description of the offences must be specific under the penal law.
Shishir said the highest punishment for the similar offence under the Pornography Act is five years’ imprisonment.
The HC might hold hearing on the petition on August 30, the counsel added.
Earlier in the day, Supreme Court lawyer Eunus Ali Akond sent a legal notice to the government requesting it to scrap Sections 57 (1) and 86 of the ICT law.
Section 86 of the law protects government employees from the offences mentioned in Section 57(1), he said in the notice. The two sections were discriminatory and unconstitutional, he added.
Eunus served the notice to the secretaries to Cabinet Division and the ministries of law, information and communication technology and information.
If the sections were not cancelled within 24 hours, he said, he would file a writ petition with the HC challenging their legality.
Source: The Daily Star
