Legal notice to govt by university teachers, writers for scrapping of ICT Act’s Section 57

Eleven citizens, including university teachers and writers, have a sent a legal notice to the government, seeking updates on initiatives taken to abolish Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 27 August 2015, 07:11 AM
Updated : 27 August 2015, 07:54 AM

The notice, sent to the secretaries to the ministries of law, home and ICT, says legal procedures will be initiated if they do not reply within 24 hours.

Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua sent the notice on behalf of the citizens by post on Thursday.

“It seeks immediate measures to scrap Section 57 of the ICT Act,” he told bdnews24.com.

On Wednesday, a lawyer sent a similar notice to the government, while another filed a petition with the High Court over the much-debated clause of the Act.

The 11 citizens who sent the notice are Dhaka University history teacher Ahmed Kamal, journalism department’s  Gitiara Nasreen and Fahmidul Haq, international relations teachers Akmal Hossain amd Tanjim Uddin Khan, social science’s Samina Lutfa, Jahangirnagar University economics teacher Anu Mohammad, Dhaka resident Abdus Salam, cultural activist Arup Rahi, writer Rakhal Raha and Biplobi Workers’ Party General Secretary Saiful Haque. 

Thursday’s notice to the government says that the ICT Act’s Section 57 is in conflict with Article 39 of the Constitution, which ensures freedom of speech.

Section 57 of the law criminalises ‘publishing fake, obscene or defaming information in electronic form.’

Offence under this provision of the ICT Act is punishable by at least seven years in prison and 14 years imprisonment at the most.

Fine can be as high as Tk 10 million.

The ICT Act was passed in 2006 before being amended twice in 2009 and 2013.

In the last amendment, offences under the Section 57 were made non-bailable and the maximum penalty was extended to a 14-year imprisonment.

Rights groups have been vocal against these legal provisions, saying this effectively muzzles the freedom of speech and expression.

The forum of print media editors, the Editors’ Council, has also demanded the scrapping of Section 57.