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The Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram constituency moved a private member Bill titled “Freedom of Literature Bill’ in Lok Sabha. The bill, with a notion to recognize the freedom of artistic and literary expression, pushes for the repeal of certain provisions under the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Customs Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. The bill proposes to repeal section 295A and 298 of the IPC, which criminalizes the acts that outrage or wound religious feelings. The MP said that the legal path is used to impose morals on the citizens. He stated that those provisions are blasphemy laws, and ambiguity of the wordings are high. While section 153A of the IPC provides for dealing with the hate speeches and acts that may bring communal disharmony, the other two aforementioned provisions are not essential. Further, section 295A and 298 of the IPC, more often than not, put the authors, scholars with alternate views in jeopardy.
The Judicial Institutions have not been able to explain why the arousal of sexual feelings due to some book or artistic expression must fall in criminality. The legal frameworks cannot be availed to impose morals, and section 292 of the IPC which deals with publication of obscene material must be repealed. Insofar as the distribution of obscene material is concerned, both electronically and physically, the distribution should be criminalized to the extent it involves children below 18 years of age. In other words, section 293 of the IPC can be attracted only when the distribution of obscene material reaches children below 18 years of age, and section 67 of the Information Technology Act should be void to the extent it involves child pornography.
In addition to the above, the Bill proposed to remove the obscenity part from the definition of Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986. The proposed definition of indecent representation implies any depiction which is derogatory to women, that is, encouraging misogyny or discrimination. Further, the Bill seeks to amend section 95 and 96 of the CrPc which deals with banning of books by the government, and section 11 of the customs act which deals with import of the books. Insofar as the CrPc provisions are concerned, the bill proposes the government to secure ratification from the high court for the ban order on books. Nonetheless, the bill states that the import cannot be banned unless it disturbs the public order despite sufficient measures being taken by the State.
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