Delhi Police withdraws UAPA against environmental website; calls its own order 'erroneous'

In a major development, Delhi Police on Friday said that it has withdrawn the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) notice that was sent to managers of an environmental website. The Delhi Police had on July 8 sent UAPA notice to the managers allegedly for spamming the email account of Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar over the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification. Now, Delhi Police has said that the order was 'erroneous' and has been withdrawn, adding that it has served notice to them under the IT Act.

The Police informed that the notice sent on July 8, mentioning the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to the website -- 'Fridays for Future' - to disable it temporarily was 'erroneous' notice with 'unrelated sections of the law'. They added that the order was withdrawn four days later. However, news agency PTI quoting a volunteer of the site alleged that it still remained blocked.

A senior police officer said to news agency PTI, "A notice was sent in this regard to the service provider to disable the particular website temporarily. It was issued on July 8. However, the draft notice was approved by the office concerned under section 66 of the IT Act. But an inadvertent section (UAPA) got mentioned into it. Accordingly, modified notice under the appropriate section of law (Section 66, IT Act) was sent to the entities concerned."

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Why was UAPA notice slapped?

According to Delhi Police DCP (cyber crime) Anyesh Roy, thousands of emails were being sent from the website to around nine email accounts of Environment ministry officials. Environment Ministry spokesperson Gaurav Khare elaborated that because of the email-bombing, the officials concerned were denied access to their email accounts. The Delhi Police took action on a complaint lodged by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar after he allegedly received over a lakh emails on his personal email account.

"Draft EIA Notification 2020 is in the public domain. Any suggestions and public comments can be sent at the official mail provided for the purpose i.e. eia2020-moefcc@gov.in and eia2020-moefcc@gov.in till August 10 as mentioned in the notification. How is spamming the minister's personal mail with a lakh mails justified?" Khare posed.

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What is Draft EIA Notification 2020?

The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2020 is being opposed by activists and environmentalists. Activists and various reports state that the draft bill gives power to the government to give a nod to a project even if it has not received environment clearances, i.e post-facto grant of approval. EIA process for obtaining prior environmental clearance will be diluted under the bill, they claim. 

While Centre refutes any such claims, after several representations expressing concerns over the publishing of the notification during COVID-19 lockdown, the government had on May 7 extended the notice period for inviting public opinion till June 30. The Delhi High Court then extended the deadline for public feedback on the draft till August 11. 

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