The Law Commission of India has drafted a new law, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2017, inserting new sections to fortify democracy against hate speeches.
What does the Law Commission Report say?
Hate speech is an incitement to hatred against a particular group of persons marginalised by their religious belief, sexual orientation, gender, and so on.
The Commission, in its 267th report on hate speech, said such utterances have the potential to provoke individuals and society to commit acts of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.
The Commission has proposed Section 153C, which penalises incitement to hatred, where a guilty person with two years’ imprisonment, or Rs. 5,000 in fine, or both.
Section 505A, which for the first time makes “causing fear, alarm, or provocation of violence in certain cases” a specific criminal offence.
Section 505A provides a punishment of one year imprisonment, or Rs. 5,000 in fine, or both.
Offensive speech has real and devastating effects on people’s lives and risks their health and safety. It is harmful and divisive for communities and hampers social progress.
The commission also warned that if left unchecked, hate speech can severely affect right to life of every individual.
It said even a speech that does not incite violence has the potential of marginalising a section of society, thus contradicting popular legal and judicial concepts about the ambit of hate speech.
Incitement to violence cannot be the sole test for determining whether a speech amounts to hate speech or not.
Even speech that does not incite violence has the potential of marginalising a certain section of the society or individual.
It also pointed out that in the age of technology; the anonymity of the Internet allows a miscreant to easily spread false and offensive ideas.
These ideas need not always incite violence but they might perpetuate the discriminatory attitudes prevalent in the society. Thus, incitement to discrimination is also a significant factor that contributes to the identification of hate speech.
