India’s Supreme Court signals rethink on criminal defamation law

NEW DELHI — India’s Supreme Court on Monday hinted it may be time to decriminalise defamation, revisiting its own 2016 ruling that upheld the colonial-era law.

Hearing a plea by a news portal and its journalist challenging summons in a criminal defamation case over a 2016 article on Jawaharlal Nehru University, Justice M.M. Sundresh observed: “It’s time to decriminalise all this.”

The case stems from a complaint by a former JNU professor who alleged the article harmed her reputation. The magistrate issued summons in 2017, quashed later by the Delhi High Court, but reinstated by the top court in 2024.

India’s penal code provides for up to two years’ jail for criminal defamation. In 2016, the Supreme Court upheld its validity, saying reputation was integral to the right to life. The fresh observations could reopen debate on whether the law places a “chilling effect” on free speech.