THE WIRE’S PLEA: Supreme Court moots decriminalisation of defamation

New Delhi, Sep 22: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that the time had come to consider decriminalising defamation, while hearing a plea filed by online news portal The Wire against a summons issued in a criminal defamation case.

A Bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma made the oral remark while hearing a petition moved by the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which runs The Wire, challenging summons in a case filed by Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Amita Singh. “I think time has come to decriminalise all this…,” Justice Sundresh said, according to Bar & Bench. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the news portal, concurred with the Court’s observation.

The defamation case stems from a 2016 Wire article that reported Amita Singh was part of a group of JNU teachers who compiled a dossier labelling the university a “den of organised sex racket” and “the den of secessionism and terrorism.” Amita Singh subsequently filed a criminal defamation complaint, leading a magistrate to summon the portal and its political affairs editor Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

The summons were earlier set aside by the Supreme Court, which directed the magistrate to take a fresh look at the matter. In January this year, fresh summons were issued, later upheld by the Delhi High Court on May 7.

That ruling is now under challenge before the apex court. At the outset of the hearing, the Bench expressed concern over the prolonged pendency of the case. “How long will you go on dragging this?” the judges asked. Sibal responded that a similar issue was also under consideration in connection with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s case. The Court has issued notice to Singh and will hear the matter next. Currently, defamation remains a criminal offence under Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code. India is among the few democracies that criminalise defamation, with most others providing only for civil remedies. In 2016, the Supreme Court had upheld the validity of criminal defamation in a batch of petitions filed by political leaders including Subramanian Swamy, Rahul Gandhi, and Arvind Kejriwal.