Time has come to decriminalise defamation, SC says while hearing plea by ‘The Wire’

The time has come to decriminalise defamation, Bar and Bench quoted the Supreme Court as having verbally observed on Monday.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma made the comment while hearing a petition against the summons issued to The Wire in a defamation case filed by Amita Singh, a former professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The petition was filed by the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which owns The Wire.

The defamation case pertains to an article published by the news organisation in 2016 titled “Dossier call JNU ‘den of organised sex racket’; students, professors allege hate campaign”.

“I think time has come to decriminalise all this,” Live Law quoted Sundresh as orally remarking while issuing notice to Singh in the matter.

Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita criminalises defamation, which replaced the earlier provision on the offence under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.

In India, the provision has been used by politicians, individuals and businesses against journalists, rivals and media companies. Most democratic countries provide for civil remedy against the offence.

In 2016, the court had upheld the validity of Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code after several politicians, including Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, challenged the constitutionality of the provision.
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