The two sections dealing with criminal defamation of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), invoked by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and some AAP leaders, are currently under the Supreme Court scanner for being unconstitutional, obsolete and a slur on free speech protected under Article 19 (1) of the Constitution.
A Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra had in August 2015 reserved its judgment on the question of constitutionality of Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC on a batch of petitions. Mr. Kejriwal is among the petitioners.
The clutch of petitions — the first one was filed by BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy — followed by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, terms the two criminal defamation provisions a “colonial law.”
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In case the SC eventually decides to strike down the two IPC sections as unconstitutional, Mr. Jaitley’s criminal case may suffer.
However, the government had objected strongly, saying the law against criminal defamation is a much needed protection in modern India. The Ministry of Home Affairs said the Internet has no censor and could be used to malign anyone online.