PIL in Supreme Court, by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking Implementation of Law Commission Report to Control Hate Speech.[read petition]
(Judicial Quest News Network)
BJP Leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has moved a PIL in Supreme Court seeking the implementation of the 267th report of the Law Commission of India to curtail hate speech during election campaigns.
He submitted that “Responsible speech is the essence of the liberty granted under article 21 of the Constitution. One of the greatest challenges before the principle of autonomy and free speech principle is to ensure that this liberty is not exercised to the detriment of any individual or the disadvantaged section of the society. In a country like India, with diverse castes, creed, religions and languages, this issue poses a greater challenge.
In its 267th report Law Commission of India recommended the Amendment IPC and introduction of two more provisions in the IPC to strengthen criminal laws against hate speech.
Supreme Court had observed in 2014, that the implementation of existing laws would solve the problem of hate speech to a limited extent and there fore it asked the Law Commission of India to make recommendations to the Parliament to strengthen the Election Commission to curb the menace of ‘hate speeches’ during electoral campaigns. Thereafter, a Report was submitted by the Commission on March 2017, which the petitioner contends has not been implemented till date.
Law Commission had defined the hate and inflammatory speech and suggested to add Section 153-C and 505-A of the Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), on the direction of the Apex Court.
The Petitioner further contends that “under Section 123 RPA, appeal on the grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language etc. and promotions of feelings of enmity between different classes constitute corrupt practice but same can be questioned only by way of election petition and the Election Commission of India cannot order the investigation even when Model Code of Conduct is in force.”
“it has been observed, particularly, since 1990 onwards that not only in Parliament and State Assembly Elections, even in local body elections; hate speech is made to support particular party and candidate, which is against the basic dictum of a ‘sovereign socialist secular democratic republic’ like ours.”the plea said.
“The hate speech has potential of provoking individuals to commit acts of terrorism, genocides, ethnic cleansing”. It stated.
Upadhyay said that such speeches are considered outside the realm of protective discourse.
“Offensive speech has real and devastating effects on people’s lives and risks their health and safety. It is harmful and divisive for communities and hampers social progress”. the plea stated.
The petitioner had also said on Wednesday that ‘hate speech, paid news and fake news ‘were three menaces’ to the country.
Read the Petition Here.
