Mon Sep 22 11:51:46 UTC 2025: **News Article:**
**India’s Supreme Court Reconsiders Criminal Defamation Law**
**NEW DELHI, September 22, 2025** – A Supreme Court Justice has reignited the debate over the use of criminal defamation law in India, questioning its relevance in an era where it’s increasingly used for political and personal vendettas. Justice M.M. Sundresh stated, “I think time has come to decriminalise this,” during a hearing on Monday.
His comments highlight growing concerns about the misuse of the law by private individuals and political parties to silence critics and settle scores. This development comes less than a decade after the Supreme Court, in the 2016 Subramanian Swamy case, upheld the constitutional validity of criminal defamation, deeming it a reasonable restriction on free speech to protect reputation.
Justice Sundresh’s remarks, made while hearing a petition from The Wire news website, echo the court’s unease about the amplified application of the law. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, pointed to multiple instances where opposition leader Rahul Gandhi had sought the court’s intervention to stay summons issued against him in criminal defamation cases.
Recent months have seen the Supreme Court stay summons in various such cases, with judges expressing concerns about the misuse of courts for settling political disputes. In January, the court stayed proceedings against Gandhi for remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Similar reprieves were granted in cases concerning Gandhi’s comments during the Bharat Jodo Yatra and those related to Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar, as well as Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s ‘scorpion on Shivling’ remark.
In August, the court dismissed an appeal in a defamation case involving Karnataka ministers, advising them to “fight your political battles outside the court.” The court has previously emphasized that potentially defamatory words should be judged by the standards of “reasonable, strong-minded, firm and courageous men,” rather than those easily offended.
Justice Sundresh’s comments suggest a potential shift in the court’s perspective, raising the question of whether criminal defamation serves any genuine public interest when used in private disputes. The issue has been tagged with a collection of cases filed by Rahul Gandhi.
First Piper 