Raghav Chadha, Rajya Sabha MP and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, announced on Thursday that he will introduce the Decriminalisation of Defamation Bill, 2023, to repeal Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This follows a recent Gujarat court decision against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case. He was sentenced to two years in prison for a speech he gave in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which he questioned how “all thieves have Modi as the common surname.”
“Criminal Defamation has become a tool to suppress the voice of the opposition, which holds the Govt accountable. Laws should ideally change with changing times. As an MP, I’m doing my bit and taking a step in that direction,” he said in a tweet.
This is not the first time that a Bill to decriminalise defamation will be introduced. Tathagata Satpathy, then a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP, introduced the Right to Protection of Speech and Reputation Bill in 2017, seeking to repeal the “substantive offence of defamation and its punishments, consolidate the civil law related to defamation, and comprehensively provide for the protection of speech and reputation.” The bill was introduced as a Private Members’ Bill, which means it was introduced by legislators who are not members of the executive branch. Chadha’s Bill will be introduced in the same category.
Sections 499 and 500 of IPC:
Section 499 of IPC defines the term ‘defamation’ which says, “Whoever, by words either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs or by visible representations, makes or publishes any imputation concerning any person intending to harm, or knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm, the reputation of such person, is said, except in the cases hereinafter expected, to defame that person”. Imputation of individuals, even deceased, association or organisation may subject to defamation.
