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A Supreme Court justice voiced his exasperation astatine the expanding usage of transgression defamation instrumentality by backstage individuals and governmental parties to get even, highlighting the request “to decriminalise” slur.
“I deliberation clip has travel to decriminalise this,” Justice M.M. Sundresh remarked connected Monday (September 22, 2025).
Less than a decennary ago, the Supreme Court upheld the Constitutional validity of transgression defamation, saying it protected reputation, a portion of the cardinal close to life.
The apex court, successful Subramanian Swamy versus Union of India, successful 2016, had concluded that the transgression defamation instrumentality was a “reasonable restriction” to the close to escaped code and look enshrined successful Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
Justice Sundresh’s azygous remark connected Monday, mirroring the court’s anxiousness implicit the ramped-up usage of the transgression defamation law, reopens the question raised successful the Subramanian Swamy lawsuit arsenic to whether “defamation of immoderate idiosyncratic by a backstage idiosyncratic tin beryllium treated arsenic a ‘crime’, for it does not subserve immoderate nationalist interest”.
The justice made the oral reflection portion heading a Bench proceeding a petition filed by the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which manages The Wire news website, and a journalist, to quash summons issued to them by a tribunal successful a transgression defamation lawsuit filed by erstwhile Jawarharlal University Professor Amita Singh.
Senior advocator Kapil Sibal, for the petitioners, referred to the aggregate times the Leader of the Opposition successful the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had approached the apex tribunal to enactment summons issued against him by proceedings courts connected the ground of transgression defamation complaints filed by assorted backstage individuals. The Bench tagged the Foundation’s petition with the batch of cases filed by Mr. Gandhi.
Recent months person seen assorted Benches of the apex tribunal enactment summons successful transgression defamation cases, with comments including “do not beryllium truthful touchy” oregon “the tribunal is not a forum to settee governmental scores”. Justice Sundresh’s remark is the latest summation to remarks from the Bench connected the issue.
In January, the apical tribunal stayed transgression defamation proceedings against Mr. Gandhi for his remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The pursuing months had seen Mr. Gandhi determination abstracted petitions against tribunal summons successful different transgression defamation cases implicit his alleged remarks during the Bharat Jodo Yatra connected reported skirmishes betwixt Indian and Chinese soldiers, and Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar.
The apical tribunal had besides stayed criminal defamation proceedings against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor connected the ground of a ailment implicit his ‘scorpion connected Shivling’ comments allegedly targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In August, the apex tribunal dismissed an entreaty filed by Karnataka Minister Shivananda S. Patil against a Karnataka High Court bid quashing a defamation lawsuit against BJP MLA Basanagouda R. Patil Yatnal with a comment, “fight your governmental battles extracurricular the court”.
In its March 2025 judgment successful the Imran Pratapgarhi case, the Supreme Court had quoted that words oregon acts claimed to beryllium criminally defamatory “must beryllium judged from the standards of reasonable, strong-minded, steadfast and courageous men, and not those of anemic and vacillating minds, nor of those who scent information successful each hostile constituent of view”. A ‘reasonable person’, the apex tribunal quoted, was “the antheral connected the apical of a Clapham omnibus”.
