Quashing defamation laws will lead to 'anarchy', says Attorney General to Supreme Court

New Delhi: Setting aside the penal defamation laws would lead to "anarchy" and no "orderly society" can have a situation where everybody can say anything against anybody, the Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court, pitching for its retention in the statute book.

"Does the freedom of speech and expression necessarily mean that one can say anything about anybody? Can any orderly society have this kind of behavioural norms?

"If yes, then you will have nothing but the anarchy," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court.

Arguing against a batch of petitions, including the one filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, Rohatgi told a bench of justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant that penal laws have stood the test of time and should not be set aside.

"There is no great point in striking down the penal provisions...nobody can be allowed to damage the reputation of others by saying something defamatory," he said.

The Attorney General also gave several examples such as live-in relationship of any celebrity couple to drive home the point that common people have no right to make adverse comments about the private relationship of persons who happen to be even public figures.

"Being in live-in relationship is not a crime and with changing time it has become a norm accepted by society," the bench said and asked the AG whether exposing a public figure's live-in relationship would amount to defamation.

The Attorney General said that public should not look into the personal life of a public figure.

"Then how is public concerned and what business they have to make adverse comments about it," Rohatgi said and also referred to the club-going habit of a judge who was found dead in a bathroom. It cannot and should not be a matter of public debate, he said.

Dealing with the freedom of speech and expression, he said, "It is also a case of checks and balances" where reputation of persons has to be safeguarded while allowing the public to exercise the right.

Rohatgi dealt with the legal process and said initiation of defamation complaints is also a "punishment for the complainant as he will have to have his evidence recorded. It is not that he will not have to go to courts.

"There is onus on complainant to prove the case. There is big torturous process for the complainant also."