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26.
We have referred to all these provisions of the IT Act only
to lay stress that the legislature has deliberately used the
words “electronic form”. Dr. Singhvi has brought to our notice
Section 79 of the IT Act that occurs in Chapter XII dealing with
intermediaries not to be liable in certain cases. Learned
counsel has also relied on Shreya Singhal (supra) as to how
the Court has dealt with the challenge to Section 79 of the IT
Act.
The Court has associated the said provision with
exemption and Section 69A and in that context, expressed
that:“121. It must first be appreciated that Section 79 is
an exemption provision. Being an exemption
provision, it is closely related to provisions which
provide for offences including Section 69-A. We have
seen how under Section 69-A blocking can take
place only by a reasoned order after complying with
several procedural safeguards including a hearing
to the originator and intermediary. We have also
seen how there are only two ways in which a
blocking order can be passed—one by the
Designated Officer after complying with the 2009
Rules and the other by the Designated Officer when
he has to follow an order passed by a competent
court. The intermediary applying its own mind to
whether information should or should not be
blocked is noticeably absent in Section 69-A read
with the 2009 Rules.
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