{"id":236158,"date":"2023-04-04T20:12:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T14:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=236158"},"modified":"2023-04-05T13:28:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:58:18","slug":"we-should-worry-about-use-of-defamation-law-beyond-rahul-gandhi-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/we-should-worry-about-use-of-defamation-law-beyond-rahul-gandhi-case\/","title":{"rendered":"We should worry about use of defamation law, beyond Rahul Gandhi case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source-<\/strong> The post is based on the article \u201cWe should worry about use of defamation law, beyond Rahul Gandhi case\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 4th April 2023.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- India Polity<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>&#8211; Issues related to freedom of speech and expression<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; Recently, Rahul Gandhi was convicted for two years in a defamation case that led to his disqualification from Parliament.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How freedom of speech is under threat in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As per a recent report by <strong>Common Cause and Lokniti-CSDS<\/strong>, nearly two out of three respondents are scared to post their political or social opinions. They fear <strong>legal action. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Political parties continue to use the <strong>colonial era law<\/strong> as a weapon against their opponents and journalists.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are legal aspects related to defamation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The criminal offence of defamation is contained under <strong>Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the civil law<\/strong> that provides for damages.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, the defamation law was challenged before the Supreme Court. But it held that the <strong>right to reputation <\/strong>is no less important than the<strong> right to freedom of speech. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the issues with legal aspects of defamation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Civil defamation cases are <strong>prone to abuse.<\/strong> These cases are impacted by <strong>long case pendency <\/strong>in the judicial system and<strong> exaggerated claims for damages. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Civil law is <strong>scattered across judgments<\/strong> and not properly codified. This creates <strong>more uncertainty and results in the pendency. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, a <strong>reluctant apology<\/strong> is extracted to achieve a settlement. This does not serve the <strong>cause of justice.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the reasons behind the continuation of defamation laws in the legal system?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There were <strong>no serious or sustained efforts <\/strong>towards the repeal of defamation laws. <strong>Sustained political advocacy<\/strong> on issues of free expression is absent.<\/p>\n<p>Political parties across the spectrum have failed to <strong>articulate popular narratives.<\/strong> They have not <strong>built constituencies of support <\/strong>for the repeal of colonial laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source- The post is based on the article \u201cWe should worry about use of defamation law, beyond Rahul Gandhi case\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 4th April 2023. Syllabus: GS2- India Polity Relevance&#8211; Issues related to freedom of speech and expression News&#8211; Recently, Rahul Gandhi was convicted for two years in a defamation case&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/we-should-worry-about-use-of-defamation-law-beyond-rahul-gandhi-case\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">We should worry about use of defamation law, beyond Rahul Gandhi case<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[11369,212,10500],"class_list":["post-236158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-criminal-defamation","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700138859},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}