Congress MP Shashi Tharoor recently introduced the "Freedom of Literature Bill" in the Lok Sabha as a private member bill.
What is the Bill on?
The Bill seeks to amend certain provisions in -
the Indian Penal Code
the Code of Criminal Procedure
the Customs Act
Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act
The specified provisions largely affect the literary and artistic freedom in the country.
The objective is to amend and remove the existing provisions of the laws which can be misused to harass authors by vested interests.
What are the key proposals?
The Bill seeks the omission of Section 295A and 298 of IPC, which punish acts done to outrage or wound religious feelings.
These provisions, in effect, act as a blasphemy law and are worded in wide and vague terms.
The provisions are mostly used to suppress alternate views expressed by writers, thinkers and scholars.
Notably, Section 153A of IPC already deals with speeches and acts intended to disrupt communal harmony.
Therefore, Sections 295A and 298 are proposed to be omitted as redundant.
Further, the wide ambit of obscenity laws acts as a major deterrent to literary freedom in the country.
Thus, Section 292 IPC, which punishes publication of obscene material, is sought to be omitted wholly.
The section imposes “social norms of the majority and the orthodoxy” and is “not in consonance with a liberal state.”
This is a classic case of morals being imposed on the citizens through the rigours of criminal law.
The Courts too have failed to explain why the arousal of sexual feelings due to some book or painting is a criminal act.
Section 293 IPC, which deals with distribution of obscene material, is also sought to be amended.
This is to make such distribution an offence only if it is targeted at children below the age of 18 years.
Also, Sec 67 of the IT Act (Information Technology Act), dealing with online obscenity is proposed to be amended to cover only child pornography.
The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 is also sought to be amended.
The Bill states that indecent representation is any depiction which is derogatory to women, i.e. encouraging misogyny or discrimination.
The obscenity element is thus proposed to be removed from the definition as given in the Act.
The Bill further seeks to amend Section 11 of the Customs Act.
This is to state that the import of a book cannot be banned, barring exceptional circumstances.
This refers to cases where distribution of the book is likely to lead to a break down in public order despite the State taking all reasonable measures to prevent the same.
The Bill also amends Sections 95 and 96 of the CrPC, which enables Government to ban and forfeit books.
A new procedure is proposed, whereby the suspension of shipping in any book can be imposed only for 30 days.
Within this period, the Government has to get the ban order ratified by the High Court.
It thus removes the government’s right to ban books indefinitely and also puts on it the onus of explaining the rationale for the ban.
What is the need for the Bill?
In recent times, several attempts were made to get books withdrawn, pulped or sanitised of offending content.
Some of the instances include the following:
Wendy Doniger’s 'The Hindus: An Alternative History' was withdrawn from circulation
A.K. Ramanujan’s essay ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas’ was dropped from a Delhi University syllabus
Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s 'Madhorubagan' (One Part Woman) was withdrawn by the author under mob pressure (resurrected by a Madras High Court verdict)
The principles of public order, national unity and social or religious harmony are being invoked against the practice of literary freedom.
These have, over the period, evolved as threats to free expression, especially artistic freedom.
It is in this context that the Freedom of Literature Bill was introduced.
The Bill is a welcome step towards removing or diluting penal provisions that inhibit literary freedom.
