New Delhi
Jolted by the uproar over recent arrests in Mumbai, the government on Thursday moved in to minimize the possibility of misuse of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act by proposing to strip junior police officers of the power to order action, including arrests for alleged violations.

The power is proposed to be vested with a senior police officer, not below the rank of inspector general of police in the metros. In case of rural areas and non-metros, no action for violation of Section 66A can be taken until cleared by an officer of the rank of deputy commissioner of police, a top government functionary who did not wish to be identified said.

Currently, a case can be registered by an officer who is in-charge of a police station, resulting in several instances of harassment, including the recent one at Palghar where two college going girls were arrested at night for just wondering on a social networking site whether the stand-wide bandh in Maharashtra after Balasaheb Thackeray's death was justified.