Topic Of The Day:-Impinging On Freedom
It is trite to say that there must exist a balance between the freedom of expression and the right to reputation. No legal system can allow false and slanderous statements to be made publicly, with impunity. Defamation law is the tool that is used to strike the balance. But it is the shape and the form of defamation law that often determines whether the balance has been struck appropriately, or whether, in the guise of protecting reputation, the freedom of speech and expression has been effectively stifled.India’s criminal defamation law undoubtedly belongs to the latter category. A colonial relic that was introduced by the British regime to suffocate political criticism, Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code provides an ideal weapon for powerful individuals to silence critical or inconvenient speech. First, unlike many other countries, defamation in India is a criminal offence (and not just a civil wrong), and a conviction entails both social stigma and potential jail time. Second, there is a very low threshold for a prima facie case of defamation to be established by a complainant. Simply put, he must only show that an “imputation” has been made that could reasonably be interpreted as harming his reputation. This is enough to set the wheels of the law in motion. While an accused has multiple defences open to her — such as demonstrating that her statement was true and in public interest, or that it was an opinion made in good faith, and concerning a public question — these defences are effectively available only after the trial commences. By this time, an accused individual has already been dragged to court multiple times, and must also then go through a long-drawn-out trial process, where the procedure is the punishment.
And third, even the defences open to an accused are insufficiently protective of speech, to an extent that is even less than what civil defamation allows. For example, while in a civil defamation case, a defendant need only show that her statement was true in order to escape liability, in a criminal defamation proceeding, an accused must show that her statement was true and in the public interest. This leads to the paradoxical situation where our legal system is more advantageous towards those at the receiving end of civil defamation proceedings, and harsher towards those who have to go through the criminal process!
All these — and more — arguments were made as recently as 2016, when the constitutionality of criminal defamation was challenged before a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, however, they were largely ignored by (the then) Justice Dipak Misra, who simply held that Section 499 was constitutional, as it protected individual reputation. The disproportionality of criminalising what is essentially a civil wrong, and the numerous ways in which the specific structure of Indian criminal defamation law chills and suffocates free expression, was not considered by the court.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) slanderous
Meaning : (of a spoken statement) false and malicious.
Synonyms : defamatory , calumnious
Antonyms : adulatory
Example : “slanderous allegations”
2) guise
Meaning : an external form, appearance, or manner of presentation, typically concealing the true nature of something.
Synonyms : pretense , semblance
Antonyms : reality
Example : “he visited in the guise of an inspector”
3) stifled
Meaning : make (someone) unable to breathe properly; suffocate.
Synonyms : smothered , muffled
Antonyms : open
Example : “those in the streets were stifled by the fumes”
4) colonial
Meaning : relating to or characteristic of a colony or colonies.(adj)
Synonyms : insulated , nationalistic
Antonyms : multicultural
Example : “British colonial rule”(adj)
5) relic
Meaning : an object surviving from an earlier time, especially one of historical interest.
Synonyms : survival , souvenir
Antonyms : contemporary
Example : “a museum of railway relics”
6) suffocate
Meaning : die or cause to die from lack of air or inability to breathe(v).
Synonyms : choke , strangle
Antonyms : breathe
Example : “ten detainees suffocated in an airless police cell”(v)
7) conviction
Meaning : a formal declaration by the verdict of a jury or the decision of a judge in a court of law that someone is guilty of a criminal offence.(n)
Synonyms : confidence , reliance
Antonyms : disbelief
Example : “she had a previous conviction for a similar offence”(n)
8) entails
Meaning : involve (something) as a necessary or inevitable part or consequence(v),a limitation of the inheritance of property to certain heirs over a number of generations(n).
Synonyms : involves , causes
Antonyms : excludes
Example : “a situation which entails considerable risks”(v),“the damage being done in England by entails”(n)
9) pieties
Meaning : the quality of being religious or reverent.
Synonyms : devotions , reverences
Antonyms : profanities
Example : “acts of piety and charity”
10) defences
Meaning : the action of defending from or resisting attack.
Synonyms : apologies , protections
Example : “methods of defence against this kind of attack”
11) commences
Meaning : begin.(v)
Synonyms : starts , initiates
Antonyms : ceases
Example : “his design team commenced work”(v).
12) accused
Meaning : a person or group of people who are charged with or on trial for a crime.
Synonyms : charged , blamed
Antonyms : victim
Example : “the accused was ordered to stand trial on a number of charges”
