Swamy, Rahul against Centre on criminal defamation in SC

BJP’s Subrmanian Swamy and Congress’ Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday came out in unison to assail the criminal defamation law before the Supreme Court which said that lodging of cases for political speech and debates under the controversial provisions should be avoided.

“Political debates may not come under the definition of criminal offence for defamation,” a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant observed while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of section 499 and 500 of the IPC which deals with criminal defamation.

Swamy and Gandhi advanced their arguments on the issue by saying that the two provisions have an “inhibitive effect” on freedom of speech and expression, particularly political speech, rather they operate for the protection of reputation.