Panel to define offences of speech, expression

A panel constituted by the Union Home Ministry to suggest reforms to the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC) is likely to propose a separate Section on “offences relating to speech and expression.”

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As there is no clear definition of what constitutes a “hate speech” in the IPC, the Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws is attempting for the first time to define such speech.

The committee is expected to submit its report soon. Earlier this month, observing that an extreme or harsh point of view would not amount to hate speech, the Bombay High Court quashed an FIR against a Navi Mumbai resident.

A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik had observed that the right to express one’s views is a protected and cherished right in our democracy, merely because the point of view of the petitioner is extreme or harsh will not make it a hate speech as it is only expressing a different point of view.

The Bureau of Police Research and Development recently published a manual for investigating agencies on cyber harassment cases that defined hate speech as a “language that denigrates, insults, threatens or targets an individual based on their identity and other traits (such as sexual orientation or disability or religion etc.).”