Criminal defamation should be retained in the country: Law Commission

New Delhi: The 22nd Law Commission, chaired by Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi (retd), has recommended retention of criminal defamation within the scheme of criminal laws in the country.

The panel said it is important to keep in mind that right to reputation flows from Article 21 of the Constitution of India, and being a facet of right to life and personal liberty, needs to be adequately protected against defamatory speech and imputations.

In its 285th report, the Commission said that it studied the relationship between the right to reputation and the right to freedom of speech and expression, and how the two need to be balanced.

On a reference made by the Union Ministry of Law & Justice in 2017, the panel was examining various issues relating to the defamation laws.

The Commission referred to the historic judgement of the Supreme Court in the Subramanian Swamy versus Union of India case, where the apex court of the country dismissed the challenge to Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 and held it to be constitutionally valid on account of it being a reasonable restriction to the freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19(1)(a).