High Court scraps another petition challenging legality of Section 57

A petition challenging legality of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act’s Section 57 has been turned down by the High Court.

The bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo rejected the plea on Wednesday filed by one Jakir Hossain, a resident of Dhaka’s Mirpur.

The writ also sought a freeze on proceedings of a case against the petitioner under Section 57.

On July 24, Hossain’s wife filed a case accusing him of harassing her through pictures and posts in social media.

He secured a bail from the trial court on Aug 10 and moved the High Court on Aug 26.

The court has given some observations on the matter and rejected the petition, said Assistant Attorney General Nusrat Jahan, who assisted Attorney General Mahbubey Alam during Wednesday’s hearings.

The court’s observations will be available once the full verdict is published.

Petitioner’s lawyer Shishir Monir said that they would appeal against the decision.

On Tuesday, another High Court bench heard a separate petition seeking to scrap Section 57 filed by 11 citizens, including university teachers and issued a rule.

It asked why the ICT Act clause would not declared to be in contravention of the Constitution. The secretaries to the ministries of ICT, law and home have been ordered to come up with their explanations by four weeks.

On Sunday, another similar petition filed by a Supreme Court lawyer was quashed by the High Court.

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 14-years imprisonment.

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

Offences under this provision of the ICT Act is punishable by at least seven years in prison and 14 years at the most. Financial penalty can be as high as Tk 10 million.

Rights groups have been vocal against these provisions for quite some time now, saying this effectively muzzles the freedom of speech and expression.

The issue once again came to the fore after journalist Probir Sikdar was arrested and remanded in a case lodged under the ICT Act. He has been accused of defaming the LGRD and cooperatives minister through a Facebook post.

Sikdar was released a day after he was remanded in police custody for three days.

Rights activists termed the incident of Sikdar as an ‘abuse’ of Section 57.