Govt nod to prosecute Facebook,Google,Yahoo

18 Other Sites Too Face Stiff IPC Charges 

Smriti Singh TNN 

New Delhi: The Manmohan Singh government has granted sanction to prosecute social networking websites,including Google,Facebook,Yahoo and 18 others,for allegedly promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration,a trial court in the capital was informed on Friday.
In a report placed before metropolitan magistrate Sudesh Kumar,the department of information technology said there was sufficient material to proceed against the 21 social networking sites and granted sanction under section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to proceed against the accused persons in the complaint in national harmony,integration and national interest.
The sanctioning authority has personally gone through the entire records and materials produced before him and after considering and examining the same,he is satisfied that there is sufficient material to proceed against the accused persons under section 153-A,153-B and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code, the report stated.
The court had on December 23 issued summons to 21 social networking websites for allegedly committing offences of criminal conspiracy and sale of obscene books and obscene objects to young persons.

SITES UNDER SCRUTINY

Dept of infotech says sufficient material to proceed against Google,Facebook,Yahoo and 18 other websites Grants sanction to proceed against accused under Sec 153-A,153-B and 295-A of IPC ie promoting enmity and causing prejudice to national integration On Dec 23,court had issued summons to 21 sites for alleged criminal conspiracy,sale of obscene books and obscene objects to young persons.These offences carry max jail term of 3 years Court said it needed sanction of central or state govt or district magistrate to summon accused companies on tougher charges With govt nod,the new charges carry max term of 5 yrs