Mr. Arvind Datar, appearing for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the Supreme Court in his petition challenging the constitutionality of the defamation provisions in the Indian Penal Code, has contended in his written submissions filed in Court- a copy of which has been seen by “Live Law”- that Sections 499 and 500 IPC and…
The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that reporting a public figure’s live-in relationship would amount to violation of his privacy and defame him even though society accepted such relations these days. Opposing a clutch of petitions seeking scrapping of the criminal law on defamation, attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told a bench headed by…
The central government Thursday told the Supreme Court that for an orderly civil society, the penal provision of criminal defamation was integral to the reasonable restriction imposed by the constitution on the right to freedom of speech and expression it guaranteed. Defending the Indian Penal Code’s sections 499 and 500 spelling out punishment for criminal defamation,…
The Centre on Thursday stoutly defended the law for making defamation an offence saying that scrapping of the law would lead to anarchy in the society when people would get away with impunity even after destroying the hard-earned reputation of a person. Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told the court that such a penal provision is…
David Cameron has attacked British universities for failing to tackle extremism on their campuses. In a speech setting out a five-year plan to counter extreme views, the UK prime minister accused university leaders of “looking the other way” when Islamist extremists speak on campus. This, he said was “through a mixture of misguided liberalism and cultural sensitivity”.…
It is bad policy to use taxpayers’ money to settle private disputes. Propagating the fear of answering summons in distant locations to defend against alleged defamation has a chilling effect on free speech Self-litigating-non-lawyer-now-with-BJP politician Subramanian Swamy is on course to creating legal history again (after his litigation relating to 2G spectrum). The Supreme Court…
BJP’s Subramanian Swamy and Congress’ Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday came out in unison to assail the criminal defamation law before the Supreme Court which said that lodging of cases for political speech and debates under the controversial provisions should be avoided. “Political debates may not come under the definition of criminal offence for defamation,” a…
The Supreme Court today said certain comments have to be necessarily construed as “defamatory” and those making such statements, even if they happen to be true, could not claim immunity from prosecution. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and P.C. Pant said there must be reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech, as it cited two…
The Union government’s contention in the Supreme Court that the provisions in the Indian Penal Code on criminal defamation do not have a chilling effect on free speech will disappoint proponents of fundamental freedoms. The zeal to retain a law that the state can use to stifle criticism is at the heart of the government’s…
Reddit, one of the most popular sites on the internet and a social media platform that is almost entirely user-driven, has been in open revolt since June. Last week, that revolt culminated with the dismissal of CEO Ellen Pao. Reddit’s users thought they’d won victory for their values of free speech absolutism and resistance against the…