Former Supreme Court Justice Madan Lokur on Monday said that the right to freedom of speech and expression in India was being “eroded and ...
Former Supreme Court Justice Madan Lokur on Monday said that the right to freedom of speech and expression in India was being “eroded and mauled” through the misuse of laws, leading to the gradual destruction of a citizen’s right to dissent and protest. He called this a “lethal cocktail,” which is adversely impacting the liberty “of those who dare to speak up”.
Justice Lokur was delivering the 2020 BG Verghese Memorial Lecture on Preserving and Protecting our Fundamental Rights Freedom of Speech, Expression and the Right to Protest, organised by the Media Foundation. He retired from the top court in December 2018 after a tenure that lasted over six years.
The former judge said that one of the worst forms of curtailment of the freedom of speech is charging a person with sedition. “It is extremely important for distinguishing between free speech and sedition, but unfortunately the distinction is being lost sight of by the establishment,” he said.
Justice Lokur pointed out that the Supreme Court had laid down the sedition law clearly and cogently in 1962 itself, yet authorities have found various ways of misusing it.
“A citizen has a right to say or write whatever he likes about the Government, or its measures, by way of...
