‘Time for law on hurtful speech by MPS, MLAS’

SUPREME COURT

NEW DELHI: Suggesting it’s time for Parliament to think of a new law for a crackdown on offensive statements made by public functionaries such as MPS and MLAS, a Constitution bench in the Supreme Court on Tuesday stressed that a “constitutional culture” prescribing a self-imposed restriction must be inculcated among politicians.

The five-judge bench regretted the degradation in the quality of discourse, pointing out that the need for a specific law for public functionaries was not felt earlier because of the inherent restrictions they exercised.

However, it added, those in “high offices” are now getting away despite making objectionable speeches.

“The reason why there has been no legislation till date is because there has always been an inherent and self-imposed restriction against speaking anything disparaging against others. Now, the impression is that those restrictions are slowly getting relaxed, leading to hurtful speeches being made,” observed the bench, comprising justices SA Nazeer, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, V Ramasubramanian and BV Nagarathna.

It added: “Nobody seems to be checking them and anyone can get away by saying anything disparaging... especially those who are occupying high positions, public functionaries and government servants.”