The Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws, constituted by the Union Home Ministry for suggesting reforms in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), is likely to propose a separate Section on “offences relating to speech and expression.”
- According to The Hindu, as there is no clear definition of what constitutes a “hate speech” in the IPC, the Committee is attempting for the first time to define such speech.
- The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) 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.
- In 2018, the Home Ministry had written to the Law Commission to prepare a distinct law for online “hate speech” acting on a report by a committee headed by former Lok Sabha Secretary General T.K. Viswanathan.
- The Viswanathan committee proposed inserting Sections 153 C (b) and Section 505 A in the IPC for incitement to commit an offence on grounds of religion, race, caste or community, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, place of birth, residence, language, disability or tribe.
(Source: The Hindu)
