 bill no 190 of  2016 the indian penal code (amendment) bill, 2016 byshri baijayant panda, mpa billfurther to amend the indian penal code, 1860be  it enacted by parliament in the sixty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the indian penal code (amendment) act, 2016short title  and commencement5(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appointamendment of section 4992 section 499 of the indian penal code, 1860, (hereinafter referred to as the code), shall be numbered as sub-section (1) thereof, and after the tenth exception to sub-section (1) as so numbered, the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely:—(2) no person shall be punished for the offence of defamation unless—10(i) the person whose reputation is harmed seeks redressal in this regard;illustration: x makes a disparaging remarks against y in bad faith, only y will be able to seek redressal in court by x(ii) redressal is made within one year of publication or dissemination of defamatory material;illustration: if x publishes a defamation article against y on january 1st,2016, y can seek legal redressal on or before 1st january, 2017 only5(3) any person intending to harm or knowing or having reason to believe that any publication will harm the reputation of other person, shall be punished for the offence of defamation on the basis of single publication ruleexplanation—for the purposes of this sub-section 'single publication rule' means—(i) the person whose reputation is harmed has only one claim for each mass publication of defamatory article;10(ii) all damages suffered in all jurisdiction shall be recovered in one redressal;and(iii) a judgment for or against the complainant upon the merits of any action for damages bars any other action for damages between the same parties" 3 for section 500 of the code, the following section shall be substituted, namely:—15substitution of new section for section 500"500 whoever defames another shall be punished with fine"punishment for defamation4 for section 501 of the code, the following section shall be substituted, namely:—substituion of new section for section 501"501 whoever prints or engraves any matter, knowing or having good reason to believe that such matter is defamatory of any person, shall be punished with fine"printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory205 for section 502 of the code, the following section shall be substituted, namely:—substitution of new section for section 502"502 whoever sells or offers for sale any printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter, knowing that it contains such matter, shall be punished with fine"sale of printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter statement  of  objects  and  reasonsfree speech is the foundation value of modern democracies while criminal defamation was incorporated in the indian penal code back in 1860, it was never reviewed by the legislature the argument that these colonial-era criminal defamation provisions are an unreasonable restriction on the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech and expression bears meritindeed a joint declaration by the united nations special rapporteur and other international bodies hold the view that criminal defamation is an unjustifiable restriction in a recent judgment of the hon'ble supreme court of india, the bench in its decision observed that in the "changing climate of growing democracy, it is not permissible to keep alive such a restriction" however it leaves it to the wisdom of the legislature whether or not "to abolish criminality of defamation in the obtaining social climate"this bill seeks to amend section 499 of the indian penal code, 1860 to allow for safeguards against unrestrained legal action for defamation the bill also mandates that only the offended party can file a defamation complaint, along with other restrictions such as the claim has to be valid only within the year of publication of defamatory article; and that any judgment upon the merits of case disallows further claims by the same parties in any other jurisdiction most importantly, this bill also provides for fine as the only punishment instead of imprisonment or boththerefore, it is prudent that we review such colonial-era provisions of the indian penal code, 1860hence, this billnew delhi;baijayant pandajuly 1, 2016 annexure extract from the indian penal code, 1860 (45 of 1860)        defamation499 whoever, by words either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs or byvisible representations, makes or publishes any imputation concerning any person intending to harm, or knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm, the reputation of such person, is said, except in the cases hereinafter expected, to defame that personexplanation 1—it may amount to defamation to impute anything to a deceased person, if the imputation would harm the reputation of that person if living, and is intended to be hurtful to the feelings of his family or other near relativesexplanation 2—it may amount to defamation to make an imputation concerning a company or an association or collection of persons as suchexplanation 3—an imputation in the form of an alternative or expressed ironically, may amount to defamationexplanation 4—no imputation is said to harm a person's reputation, unless that imputation directly or indirectly, in the estimation of others, lowers the moral or intellectual character of that person, or lowers the character of that person in respect of his caste or of his calling, or lowers the credit of that person, or causes it to be believed that the body of that person is in a loathsome state, or in a state generally considered as disgraceful        500 whoever defames another shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with bothpunishment for defamation        501 printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory whoever prints or engraves any matters, knowing or having good reason to believe that such matter is defamatory of any person, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with bothprinting orengraving matter known to be defamatory        502 whoever sells or offers for sale any printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter, knowing that it contains such matter, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both        sale of printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter———— a billfurther to amend the indian penal code, 1860————(shri baijayant panda, mp)gmgipmrnd—1510ls(s3)—25-07-2016