In Brief
This case concerns whether an accused can be prosecuted under Section 292 IPC (sale of obscene books) after being discharged under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (publishing obscene material in electronic form) for the same conduct. The Court held that when an offence involves electronic records, the IT Act's special provisions—Sections 67, 67A, and 67B covering obscenity in electronic form, read with Section 79 (intermediary protections) and Section 81 (overriding effect)—constitute a complete code that prevails over the general provisions of the IPC. The Court allowed the appeal and quashed the prosecution, applying the principle that special statutes with overriding clauses supersede general statutes operating in the same field.
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