Policies/Regulations

Criticising the state government, ministers, MLAs, MPs or officials on social media can now cause people to be arrested in Bihar, courtesy a recent executive decision.

Nitish Kumar’s administration has brought under the ambit of cyber crime “objectionable comments” by individuals or organisations against the government and its functionaries and lawmakers, provoking Opposition charges of curbing free speech.

The move comes six years after the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the IT Act, which criminalised “offensive” online comments, on the ground that it violated the constitutional right to free expression.

On Thursday, the economic offences unit (EOU) of Bihar police, which is also the nodal agency to tackle cyber crime, asked senior government officials to provide detailed information if they come across “objectionable comments made by undesirable persons or organisations against the Bihar government on the social media or the Internet, so that effective action could be taken against them as per the law”.