Devshree Dangi
Indore Institute of Law
The Indian Constitution has given the Fundamental Rights to the citizens of India in order to maintain peace among the people. It is well established for both, the Centre and State governments that any statute made for the welfare and interest of the citizens of India should not be in conflict with the Constitution.
It is the duty of every citizen of India to ensure that their enjoyment of rights does not come at the cost of the rights of others or simply put, one’s right is the duty of another.
“A party has a right when another or others are bound or obliged by law to do or forbear towards or in regard of him”.
—John Austin
In the recent case of “Boys Locker Room” , it was argued by the guardians of the accused boys that their act doesn’t amount to a crime as they have shared the obscene images and comments in a private chat room, the same being an exercise of their fundamental right to freedom of speech. They filed a petition in the Supreme Court in this regard stating that their act is not justified as a reasonable restriction given under Article 19(2) of the Indian Constitution.
Though according to this petition the accused parties claim to be only exercising their right to freedom of speech and expression not amounting to an offence, it is equally important to note that this right of freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 is not absolutes and unrestrained. While enjoying one’s own rights one must take due care to ensure they don’t stand to constraint the right of another.
The boys in the social media group were sharing the obscene and morphed images of under-age girls without their consent with the purpose of objectifying them using lewd and obscene comments to the extent of planning a gang rape, a serious and heinous offence punishable under the Penal Code. The right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 does not provide such freedom to violate the rights of others. Also, their act falls under the ambit of reasonable restriction under Article 19(2) of the Indian Constitution on the ground of ‘decency’ and ‘morality’.
The impugned act is dealt under section 67A of the Information Technology Act,2000 in addition to the section 499, 506 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. section 67A provides the punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electric form, section 499 of IPC contains the law on criminal defamation, section 506 provides the punishment for criminal intimidation and section 509 deals with insulting the modesty of a woman. Such acts could earlier have been dealt with under section 66A of the IT Act however, the provision was repealed by the Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal Case.
This is the sad reality of today’s scenario that such offences are increasing rapidly on social media and are promoting the evils of rape and disrespect towards women amongst the youth. The fundamental rights given by the Constitution should be enjoyed in such a manner that it would not affect the right and dignity of others. Sharing the morphed pictures of girls and measuring their body parts and objectifying them for sexual assault is an immoral act and it should not be considered as an enjoyment of right, such an act insults the modesty of a woman and infringes her right to privacy.
This is not the first time that such an act has happened, but yes, it can be said that such an act was revealed to the point of national coverage for the first time. It will not be wrong to conclude that the society itself is involved and also guilty of such acts the reason being that our youth reflect in their actions what they absorb from the society. They are holding the mirror of the society and in this context, the whole society is liable for such acts.
REFERENCES:
[1] Venkata Subbarao, G.C., Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, 2008 Read more at Legal Bites https://www.legalbites.in/rights-duties-jurisprudence/
[2] Constitution of India-Freedom of speech and expression,N Pradahan, Legal Service India.
[3] Boys Locker Room case reached Supreme Court, intervened plea, Shiva Sharma,Job Vacany,https://jobsvacancy.in/boys-locker-room-case-reached-supreme-court-intervened-plea/
[4] Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code.
[5] Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.
