Rozaline Sherly A, BA LLB (Hons), Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore Central Campus
ABSTRACT
Criminal defamation is a punishable offense under section 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. While tracing back its history, IPC was enacted in 1860 when India was under the British era and the main objective of this section was to ensure that Indians do not make any statement against the British in the fear of punishment. This paper seeks to find as to whether such a section still has to remain even after India’s transformation to being the ‘World’s largest democracy’ as the foundational value of any democracy is freedom of speech. This paper proposes to make a comparative approach by looking into other jurisdictions which have struck down their criminal defamation laws after the vivid recognition of the freedom of speech. The paper also tries to analyze as to why defamation should be criminalized when there are adequate provisions in the civil law to protect the concept of reputation. Various case laws are looked into, to examine how in most instances criminal defamation is used as a tool to hamper the right to freedom of speech. This paper also examines certain philosophies like the Athenian ideal of free speech of Socrates in which he has argued, ‘‘what people believe ought to be corrected rather than punished’’, libertarian teaching of John Stuart Mill which talks about the duty to respect the freedom of speech even though it is offensive and the theories of John Milton and Alexander Meiklejohn which emphasize that the freedom of speech should never be curtailed and it promotes inclusiveness and allows us to find the truth. The paper concludes by saying that criminalizing defamation is completely unjustifiable in a democratic country like India and puts forth the suggestion to decriminalize defamation in India to adhere to the principles enshrined in the constitution.
Keywords: Criminal defamation, India, history, cases, philosophies
