&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Time has come to decriminalise defamation law,’ says Supreme Court in a shift from its 2016 ruling")
The Supreme Court on Monday said that the time has come to decriminalise defamation. The top court’s remark is a shift from its 2016 judgment that had upheld the constitutional validity of criminal defamation laws, saying that the right to reputation falls under the fundamental right to life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution, says a Bar and Bench report. In the 2016 judgment, the Supreme Court had upheld Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Now, Section 499 has been replaced by Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced the IPC in 2024.
The remark was made by the Supreme Court bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on Monday as it heard a plea challenging a summons issued by a magistrate and subsequently upheld by the Delhi High Court to the online publication The Wire in a criminal defamation case filed by a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor.
The criminal defamation case was filed against the online publication and its reporter over a 2016 news article alleging the professor’s involvement in compiling a 200-page controversial dossier titled “Jawaharlal Nehru University: The Den of Secessionism and Terrorism”, which called JNU a “den of organised sex racket”.
The complaint alleged that the editor did not verify the authenticity of the dossier and used it to benefit its magazine financially, defaming the complainant’s reputation.
During the hearing, while agreeing to issue notice on the matter, Justice MM Sundresh observed in an oral comment, “I think time has come to decriminalise all this...”
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Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing The Wire, concurred with the court’s observation, supporting the need for reform.
Defamation remains a criminal offence in India under Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, a provision that replaced Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.
In the Subramanian Swamy vs. Union of India case in 2016, the top court upheld the constitutionality of criminal defamation, ruling that it served as a reasonable restriction on the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 and was a fundamental aspect of the right to life and liberty.
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