The Supreme Court of India on Monday extended support for decriminalising defamation while hearing a case involving the online news portal The Wire. The case was filed by Amita Singh, a retired teacher from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).  

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma issued a notice to Ms Singh after a petition was filed by the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which runs The Wire. During the hearing, the bench said, “I think the time has come to decriminalise all this. How long will you go on dragging this?” Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the news portal, agreed with the Court's observation.

The case dates back to 2016, when The Wire published an article alleging that Professor Singh led a group of JNU teachers who had compiled a 200-page dossier, described in the article as a “den of organised sex racket”, containing derogatory remarks about the university. The article stated that the dossier was titled “Jawaharlal Nehru University: The Den of Secessionism and Terrorism”. According to the report, some teachers in JNU were accused of encouraging a corrupt culture at the university and supporting separatist movements in India.

After the publication, Ms Singh filed a criminal defamation case against The Wire and its reporter. In 2017, a magistrate’s court issued a summons to the news portal in connection with the case. Last year, the Supreme Court set aside the summons and asked the lower court to re-examine the article before deciding on issuing the summons. Despite this, the lower court again issued a summons to both the news portal and its reporter. The decision was challenged in the Delhi High Court, but the court dismissed the petition.

The Wire then approached the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court’s ruling. The case involves Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which criminalises defamation. India is one of the few democratic countries where defamation can be treated as a criminal offence, and many politicians, including Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, have questioned the constitutionality of this law.The Supreme Court’s remarks indicate a growing support for reforming the law and treating defamation as a civil matter rather than a criminal offence, which could have far-reaching implications for freedom of the press and free speech in the country.