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The Constitution of India states in Article 19 (1) that “all citizens shall have the right (a) freedom of speech and expression”. However there are certain limitations as mentioned in Article 19 (2) which states that ,"Nothing in sub clause (a) of clause ( 1 ) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the state from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”
The simple answer would be "Yes" but with certain "reasonable" restrictions.
The Indian Penal Code has several clauses that make it contingent upon the person “expressing” himself or herself not to hurt sentiments or cause public discord, something that is open to interpretation.
Section 153A: Deals with words, spoken or written, or representations that promote disharmony and feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between groups. The penalty is 3 years in jail and/or fine.
Section 292: Makes obscene publications (book, paper, pamphlet, writing, drawing, painting, representation, figure or any object) an offence. The penalty is 2 years (first conviction) or 5 years (second conviction), and/or fine.
Section 295A: Criminalises “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings, including words, signs, visible representations”; entails 3 years and/or fine.
Section 298: Penalises the “utterance of words” that might hurt the religious feelings of any person; the penalty is 1 year and/or fine.
Despite its Constitutional commitment to free speech, India has seen its fair share of state actors abusing the legal system so as to curb "Free Speech". According to me, the darkest hour for India as a nation was when an emergency was declared by Smt.Indira Gandhi on June 25th, 1975. The fourth estate of democracy, the media suffered immensely under Emergency. Severe censorship was imposed on television and radio as well. The following image that appeared the Times of India summarizes it perfectly.
"O'Cracy, D.E.M., beloved husband of T. Ruth, loving father of L.I. Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justicia, expired on June 26."
It was a small "Obituary", only 22 words long, which came out among the classified ads in the Times of India on June 28, 1975, three days after the Emergency was declared.
However with the passage of time, the situation has been getting better primarily due to the "Activism"shown by the higher courts in our country.
India was ranked 136 out of 180 nations worldwide in terms of press freedom in 2015, which marks an improvement from its rank of 140 in 2014 although our absolute score declined. Our best scores were achieved in 2002 & 2006. The Hoot has been releasing its Free Speech in India report since 2010, and in comparison with the last three years, 2015 has seen minor improvements which have been marred by serious threats.The number of attacks on journalists and media houses in various forms dropped from 105 in 2014 to 27 in 2015. Five journalists were arrested in 2015 up from four the previous year.
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Section 66 A of the IT Act 2000, last year in March went a long way in strengthening our efforts to protect "Free Speech". The Bombay High Court also ruled that mere criticism is not seditious while upholding a petition that challenged the charge of sedition against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi.
We do have a long way to go though. The Hoot found that in 26 case, sedition had been invoked in 2015 whereas the figure for 2014 was a total of five (including cases that were later withdrawn). Surprisingly, the Supreme Court upheld the framing of obscenity charges against poet Vasant Dattatreya Gurjar for his poem on Gandhi.
I would like to end by quoting Robert Frost, "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
The simple answer would be "Yes" but with certain "reasonable" restrictions.
The Indian Penal Code has several clauses that make it contingent upon the person “expressing” himself or herself not to hurt sentiments or cause public discord, something that is open to interpretation.
Section 153A: Deals with words, spoken or written, or representations that promote disharmony and feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between groups. The penalty is 3 years in jail and/or fine.
Section 292: Makes obscene publications (book, paper, pamphlet, writing, drawing, painting, representation, figure or any object) an offence. The penalty is 2 years (first conviction) or 5 years (second conviction), and/or fine.
Section 295A: Criminalises “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings, including words, signs, visible representations”; entails 3 years and/or fine.
Section 298: Penalises the “utterance of words” that might hurt the religious feelings of any person; the penalty is 1 year and/or fine.
Despite its Constitutional commitment to free speech, India has seen its fair share of state actors abusing the legal system so as to curb "Free Speech". According to me, the darkest hour for India as a nation was when an emergency was declared by Smt.Indira Gandhi on June 25th, 1975. The fourth estate of democracy, the media suffered immensely under Emergency. Severe censorship was imposed on television and radio as well. The following image that appeared the Times of India summarizes it perfectly.
"O'Cracy, D.E.M., beloved husband of T. Ruth, loving father of L.I. Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justicia, expired on June 26."
It was a small "Obituary", only 22 words long, which came out among the classified ads in the Times of India on June 28, 1975, three days after the Emergency was declared.
However with the passage of time, the situation has been getting better primarily due to the "Activism"shown by the higher courts in our country.
India was ranked 136 out of 180 nations worldwide in terms of press freedom in 2015, which marks an improvement from its rank of 140 in 2014 although our absolute score declined. Our best scores were achieved in 2002 & 2006. The Hoot has been releasing its Free Speech in India report since 2010, and in comparison with the last three years, 2015 has seen minor improvements which have been marred by serious threats.The number of attacks on journalists and media houses in various forms dropped from 105 in 2014 to 27 in 2015. Five journalists were arrested in 2015 up from four the previous year.
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Section 66 A of the IT Act 2000, last year in March went a long way in strengthening our efforts to protect "Free Speech". The Bombay High Court also ruled that mere criticism is not seditious while upholding a petition that challenged the charge of sedition against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi.
We do have a long way to go though. The Hoot found that in 26 case, sedition had been invoked in 2015 whereas the figure for 2014 was a total of five (including cases that were later withdrawn). Surprisingly, the Supreme Court upheld the framing of obscenity charges against poet Vasant Dattatreya Gurjar for his poem on Gandhi.
I would like to end by quoting Robert Frost, "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
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