Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court has quashed charges under the IT Act against two brothers accused of leaking a question paper after one of them took pictures of the paper inside the exam hall and sent them to the other. The latter was sitting outside the hall. The events occurred during the 2018 GPSC exam.Police invoked Section 66E of the IT Act, which prescribes punishment for violation of privacy.HC said the candidate’s act of sending photographs through WhatsApp to his brother cannot be termed an act of intentionally or knowingly capturing, publishing or transmitting images of a private area. So, HC said, Section 66E does not come into play.When the invigilator flagged Hardik Purohit’s alleged transmission of photos to his brother Rahul, officials filed an FIR at Sector 7 police station in Gandhinagar against the brothers, who challenged the FIR in HC.Apart from breach of privacy, the brothers were charged with violating a notification prohibiting mobile phones inside the exam hall.On the notification-related charge, HC said it was an instruction issued by GPSC that cannot be considered a promulgation attracting the charge of violation of the notification.
