Former chief judge of the court, Madan B Lokur, spoke about new methods to “silence speech.” (Proceedings)
New Delhi:
The law is being misused to curb freedom of the press and expression, said former Supreme Court Justice Madan B Lokur. He said that “a lethal cocktail of use and abuse of the law” is being used to adversely impact the freedom of all those who dare to speak.
The former superior court judge was especially critical of the “use of weapons” of sedition laws, the “abuse” of prohibition orders and the widespread shutdown of the Internet.
Judge Lokur delivered the BG Verghese 2020 Commemorative Lecture on “Preserving and Protecting Our Fundamental Rights: Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Expression and Right to Protest”, organized by the Media Foundation.
In addition, the Foundation also presented the 2019 Chameli Devi Jain Award to women for their outstanding journalism.
This year, the award was shared by Arfa Khanum Sherwani from ” The Wire ” and Rohini Mohan, a freelance journalist from Bengaluru. Rukmini S, a freelance data journalist from Chennai, received an “honorable mention”.
In his lecture, Judge Lokur said: “One of the worst forms of restriction of freedom of expression is to accuse a person of sedition.”
He noted that the Supreme Court had established the sedition law clearly and convincingly in 1962, yet the authorities have found various ways to “arm” the sedition laws.
Justice Lokur was one of four high-ranking judges who held the controversial press conference on January 12, 2018 against the then Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra.
While talking about the new methods of “silencing speech”, he said that these include attributing to a speaker something he or she never said and then instituting punitive proceedings against that person.
He also referred to several cases, including that of the preventive detention of Dr. Kafeel Khan, and said that “almost all procedures known to the law were violated” by the detaining authorities.
Kafeel Khan was arrested in January this year on charges of giving a provocative speech at the Muslim University of Aligarh (AMU) during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The Allahabad High Court ordered his release on September 1.
Judge Lokur also spoke about the arrest of Devangana Kalita, a member of Pinjra Tod, in a case of riots in Delhi, saying that any citizen “can be arrested on the basis of a fairy tale and will have to go through a long process. to be released. ” “.
He said the law should always be interpreted objectively, but lately, subjective satisfaction has taken over and the consequences are unpleasant.
The former senior court judge, who retired in December 2018, alleged that the use of Section 144 of the CrPC to “keep the media out of the Hathras gangrape rape area is nothing more than a heinous violation of the freedom of the press through a strange abuse of law. “
He said that frequent internet blackouts via “blanket orders under the pretext of preventing the breakdown of the peace” were a very disproportionate response.
“The fundamental right to freedom of expression is extremely important to any civilized democracy,” Judge Lokur said, adding that authorities are obliged to ensure that laws are not misrepresented, misused, or abused in such a way that citizens are deprived of their freedoms.
He advised the “establishment” to understand that “the people of this country have good intentions and, as in any democracy, there will surely be different points of view.”
“These must be respected, otherwise the fabric of our society could disintegrate …”, he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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