Modi govt using sedition law to curb free speech: Former SC judge

Agencies

September 14, 2020

New Delhi, Sept 14: The government is using the sedition law with an iron hand to curb free speech in an overreaction to people's opinion, former Supreme Court judge Justice M B Lokur said on Monday.

Another method by which the state is curbing free speech is to crack down on critical opinions by charging them of spreading fake news, Justice (retried) Lokur said at a webinar on 'Freedom of Speech and Judiciary'.

He cited examples of journalists reporting about coronavirus cases and related issue such as lack of ventilators, being charged with fake news provisions.

"State is using sedition as an iron hand to curb free speech. Suddenly you have a lot of cases charging people with sedition. A common citizen who say something is charged with sedition. Already 70 cases of sedition have been seen this year," Justice Lokur said.

Speaking on the contempt of court issue related to lawyer Prashant Bhushan, the former apex court judge said his statements were misread.

He also gave an example of doctor Kafeel Khan and said his speech was also misread to charge him with the National Security Act over his statements against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Veteran journalist N Ram said the punishment in the Prashant Bhushan case is "incongruous" and there is no "real substantiation" for the apex court's findings.

"I have great respect for the judiciary. It is the judiciary which read freedom of the press into the Constitution," Ram said at the webinar organised by Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) and Swaraj Abhiyan

There will be more and more scrutiny of the judiciary in the coming days, he said, adding that harsher things are said in print and media than the tweets of Bhushan.

Social activist Aruna Roy said the empowerment which people got because of Bhushan's positions is enormous and the case has stimulated people.

"This intent to spread fear will not work. We are empowered by the Constitution," she said.

Meanwhile, Bhushan deposited the token fine of Re 1 imposed by the Supreme Court in the contempt case over two of his tweets in the in the apex court's Registry.

Talking to media before submitting the fine, Bhushan said that he has received contributions from several corners of the country for paying the fine, and a "truth fund" will be created out of such contributions to provide legal aid to those who are prosecuted for dissenting opinions.

"The State is using all means to silence voices of dissent. The 'truth fund' will be used to protect the personal liberty to those persons who face the State's persecution", he said.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

Comments