Hate speeches complete menace, we want free and balanced press in India: SC

January 13, 2023 09:10 pm | Updated 09:10 pm IST

Hate speeches are a “complete menace”, the Supreme Court observed on Friday and rued the lack of regulatory control on TV news content, saying it wants “free and balanced press in India”.

The top court said nowadays everything is driven by TRP (television rating point) and channels are competing with each other and creating a division in society. It wondered why can’t a TV news anchor, if they become a part of the problem of propagating hate speech, be taken off air.

It said unlike for print media, there is no Press Council of India for news channels, and observed, “We want free speech, but at what cost”.

A bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna, which was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a curb on hate speech incidents across the country and action against the culprits, said, “Hate speech has become a complete menace. It has to stop.”

Expressing concern over media trials, the bench pointed to the recent incident of a man allegedly urinating on an Air India flight, saying, “He was called names. Media people should understand he is still under trial and he should not be denigrated. Everyone has dignity.”

Justice Joseph said TV channels are competing with each other as news coverage is TRP-driven. “They sensationalise everything and create divisions in society because of the visual element. Unlike the newspaper, the visual medium can influence you much more and unfortunately, the audience is not mature enough,” he said.

He said many a time during live debates the anchors became part of the problem as they either mute the voice of the person sitting in a panel or don’t allow them to present a counter view.

Justice Nagarathna said if TV channels are found to be violating the programme code by indulging in propagation of hate speech, action can be taken against their management.

“We want a free and balanced press in India,” she said.

The counsel representing the News Broadcasters Association claimed that thousands of complaints have been received in the past year and action taken against the channels.

“In a live programme, the key to fairness of the programme is held by the anchor. If the anchor is not fair, he would not allow the counter view to come by either muting the speaker or by not asking the question to the other side. This is an insignia of bias. “How many times action has been taken against the anchor? Media people must learn that they are occupying positions of great strength and they have an impact on society. They cannot be part of the problem and speak their mind whichever way they want,” the bench said.

Justice Joseph said if action is taken against the news anchor or their management, all will fall in line. The court told Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, that freedom of speech and expression is a very important and delicate thing and the government has to take some action without actually interfering with it.

Nataraj said the Centre is aware of the problem and is contemplating bringing amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to deal with the problem of hate speeches.

Justice Nagarathna, who recently gave a dissenting verdict on speeches made by public functionaries where she dealt with the issue of hate speech said, “Ultimately, it all comes down to the content of the speech. Freedom of speech and expression comes with great responsibility.” Nataraj agreed with the view of the bench and said State cannot subscribe to hate crime or hate speech, and these cannot be ascribed to any particular religion.

The bench told him the government has to act against broadcasts that impact the nation and affect fraternity and harmony carefully within the domain of law with some out of the box solution. Justice Nagarathna said, “TV has been now in India for decades but still it has no regulations and has become free for all. You don’t have something like the Press Council of India for channels like newspapers.”

The bench recalled a recent incident where a Delhi police officer was stabbed by a snatcher in front of a crowd but no one intervened, and said, “Several people were there but no one wants to stick their neck out.”

Deputy Advocate General of Uttarakhand Jatinder Kumar Sethi said several cases of hate speech were registered including 23 that were lodged by police suo motu (on its own) as per the last order of the court.

Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad, who represented Uttar Pradesh, said more than 500 such cases have been filed, including 160 suo motu cases, where action has been taken and people have been arrested.

On October 21 last year, the apex court had asked Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi to crack down hard on those making hate speeches, observing, “Where have we reached in the name of religion, what have we reduced religion to is tragic”.

Holding that the Constitution of India envisages a secular nation, the court had directed the three states to promptly register criminal cases against the offenders without waiting for a complaint to be filed.

The apex court warned any delay on the part of the administration in taking action on this “very serious issue” will invite the court’s contempt.

ISRO report says Joshimath sank by 5.4 cm in just 12 days

According to images released by the National Remote Sensing Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation, Uttarakhand’s Joshimath has witnessed a rapid subsidence of nearly 5.4 cm in the past 12 days. The report stated that a subsidence of nearly 9 cm was recorded between April-November 2022. The pictures were taken from the Cartosat-2S satellite.

“The region subsided around 5 cm within a span of a few days and the areal extent of subsidence has also increased. But it is confined to the central part of Joshimath town,” the NRSC report said.

It said a subsidence zone resembling a generic landslide shape was identified – tapered top and fanning out at base. The report noted that the crown of the subsidence was located near Joshimath-Auli road at a height of 2,180 metres.

The images show the Army Helipad and Narsingh Temple as the prominent landmarks in the subsidence zone that spans the central part of Joshimath town.

Joshimath, home to the monastery of Adi Sankaracharya and gateway to the Badrinath temple, is built on the deposits of an old landslide, which means the slopes can be destabilised even by slight triggers. The town is also in Zone V, denoting highest risk, in India’s seismic zonation scheme.

Joshimath’s geological setting, together with the unplanned and rampant construction in and around the town, has resulted in land subsidence.

The signs of subsidence had first appeared in October 2021 but the situation became particularly alarming towards the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, when large parts of the town experienced sudden land-sinking and several houses developed major cracks as well.

A report on Joshimath published by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) in September 2022 said that floods in June 2013 and February 2021 heightened erosion in the area. Very heavy rains in October 2021 – 190 mm in 24 hours – also worsened the subsidence and vulnerability to landslides, it stated.

Air India ‘urinating’ incident: Shankar Mishra takes a U-turn, tells Delhi court complainant urinated on her own seat 

In a surprise U-turn, Shankar Mishra, the man accused of urinating on an elderly woman co-passenger on an Air India flight, told a Delhi court on Friday he did not commit the offensive act.

The claim by his lawyer, made for the first time since the sordid event unfolded on an Air India New York-New Delhi flight on November 26 last year, flies in the face of denunciation of the accused by some of the co-passengers and even a string of WhatsApp exchanges he had with the victim woman which suggested the unsavoury incident indeed took place.

“I’m not the accused. There must be someone else. She herself urinated. She was suffering from some disease related to prostate. It was not him. The seating system was such that no one could go to her seat. Her seat could only be approached from behind, and in any case the urine could not reach to seat’s front area. Also, the passenger sitting behind the complainant did not make any such complaint,” defence advocate told court.

The judge was hearing Delhi police’s plea seeking custodial interrogation of the accused.

Supreme Court to examine whether girls aged 15 can be married off under Muslim personal law when statutes make it an offence

The Supreme Court on January 13 decided to examine whether girls as young as 15 years can enter into wedlock on the basis of custom or personal law when such marriages constitute an offence in statutory law.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud issued a formal notice on the petition filed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) against a recent order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that a girl, on attaining puberty or the age of 15 years and above, could be married on the basis of Muslim personal law, irrespective of the provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The Supreme Court said the High Court order would not act as a judicial precedent for other courts. Appearing for NCPCR, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that “girls as young as 14 and 15 are being married. Can personal law and custom be pleaded in the face of statutes such as POCSO and the Indian Penal Code, which make such marriages an offence?”

The Kerala High Court had recently observed that provisions of POCSO would apply if the bride or groom was a minor, irrespective of the validity or otherwise of the marriage.

The NCPCR, through advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi, has contended that laws such as POCSO and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act are secular in nature and should apply to all sections of the society.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 has sought to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, to increase the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years. The legal age for marriage is 18 years for women and 21 years for men. Marriage below this age is considered to be child marriage, an offence.

In December 2022, the apex court had asked the government to respond to a separate petition filed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to make the minimum age of marriage for Muslim women on par with persons belonging to other faiths. NCW, like the NCPCR, had raised the question whether personal law could override statutory provisions of POCSO, etc.

The NCW had argued that the practice of marrying below the age of 18 would expose Muslim women to abuse and harassment. It was arbitrary and discriminatory. The petition had sought the enforcement of the fundamental rights of minor Muslim women who had contracted marriage before attaining the age of majority, whether consensually or otherwise.

Under the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936, Special Marriage Act, 1954 and Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the minimum age of marriage for a man is 21 years and for a woman is 18 years. However, under the Muslim personal law in India, which continues to remain uncodified and unconsolidated, persons who gave attained puberty are eligible to get married i.e. on attaining the age of 15 years, while they are still minor”, the NCW petition had stated.

In Brief:

Tennis ace Sania Mirza, through a social media post on Friday, reveled her plans of retiring from professional Tennis at the conclusion of the Dubai Open in February this year. She had earlier reveled her plans of retirement in an interview with the WTA tour website . “My Grand Slam journey started with the Australian Open back in 2005. So it goes without saying that this would be the most perfect Grand Slam to end my career with,” she wrote in her statement released on Friday.

Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.

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