Once again the arrest of a person for posting objectionable matter in social networking site face book draws the apex court’s attention.

State police have arrested Jaya Vindhayal, the state general secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), on May 12 under section 66A of the IT Act for posting "objectionable" content in the social network site. She has made some allegations against former CM K.Rosaiah and Mohan and also repiortedly distributed pamphlets to the people.

When the matter was brought to Supreme Court’s notice by a law student Shreya Singhal, the court has said today that no person should be arrested for posting objectionable comments on social networking sites without taking prior permission from senior police officials. It also reminds the state governments about the bill passed by the Center regarding guidelines to be followed in making arrests in such cases.

The bench of justices B S Chauhan and Dipak Misra have said "We direct the state governments to ensure compliance with the guidelines (issued by Centre) before making any arrest." The advisory issued by the Centre says that, "State governments are advised that as regard to arrest of any person in complaint registered under section 66A of the Information Technology Act, the concerned police officer of a police station may not arrest any person until she/he has obtained prior approval of such arrest from an officer, not below the rank of Inspector General of Police (IGP) in metropolitan cities or of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) or Superintendent of Police (SP) at district level, as the case may be."

The apex court, which has refused to pass an order for a blanket ban on the arrest of a person for making objectionable comments on websites, said state governments should ensure strict compliance of the Centre's January 9th.