While the Supreme Court is seized of a batch of petitions questioning the constitutionality of criminal defamation proceedings, the Madras high court on Tuesday stopped just inches short of decriminalizing the ‘offence’ when it ruled that persons facing such cases could not be considered to have a ‘criminal background’. “The trend all over the world…
There is a need to decriminalise penal provision for defamation and the “colonial law”, which has been inevitably abused, needs to be re-examined rigorously, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Toeing identical line adopted by BJP’sSubramanian Swamy and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi who have also challenged constitutional validity of…
The United States expressed concern on Tuesday about the treatment of opposition figures in Bahrain, following the arrest of a prominent Sunni Muslim leader for plotting to overthrow the monarchy three weeks after he was freed from jail. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said on Sunday that Ibrahim Sharif, former head of the secular National Democratic Action…
BJP’s Subrmanian 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 bench…
The irony of Subramanian Swamy’s newest challenge to India’s hate speech and blasphemy laws is lost on many of his supporters. The same laws were used to prosecute Wendy Doniger and harass Maqbool F Hussain, as well asShirin Dalvi and others who published images depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Free speech in India is messily contested.…
Almost a month after journalist Jagendra Singh was allegedly killed for his social media posts against a Uttar Pradesh minister, his 22-year-old son came out of his personal grief to urge the Supreme Court, as the custodian of free speech, to protect more independent voices like his father’s from being “crushed to death” in the future.…
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the government’s response on a plea filed by a media professionals’ organisation challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions including penal laws on defamation. “Issue notice. A copy of this petition be served on the office of the Attorney General of India in course of the day. Let the matter…
Months after one of its campaigners was ‘offloaded from a flight, Greenpeace India on Monday claimed that a member of its international staff was denied entry into India despite having valid documents. According to the NGO, Aaron Gray-Block, a member of Greenpeace International, had flown in from Sydney on Saturday to take part in a series…
In occupied Kashmir, Hurriyet leaders have called upon India to allow a UN team to conduct investigation into human right violations as a result of enforced draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the territory. The leaders including Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Yousuf Naqash, Shabbir Ahmad Dar, Zamruda Habib, Yasmeen Raja, Hakeem Abdul Rashid, Farooq…
The episodes which have been taking place in Kashmir University for more than a week now are truly disturbing. The arrest of a student and the breakout of protests for his release by the fellow students is a very common reaction and genuine. This is not the first episode that took place at this highest…