500% rise in cases filed under hate-speech law in seven years: NCRB

Cases filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 153A (promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) saw a sixfold or almost a 500 per cent increase between 2014 and 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau data.

While 2014 (323 cases) saw the least number of cases in seven years, the year 2020, with 1,804 cases, saw the highest.

In 2020, Tamil Nadu (303) registered the highest number of cases under this Section, followed by Uttar Pradesh (243), Telangana (151), Assam (147), and Andhra Pradesh (142).

Similarly, cases filed under Section 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) increased sixfold — from 13 in 2014 to 82 in 2020.

Hate speech has not been defined in any law in India and continues to remain a matter of live debate in the country. In fact, the Law Commission of India, in its March 2017 report, wrote that “new provisions in the IPC are required to be incorporated” to address the issue of hate speech.

While there is no specific law that defines hate speech, there are select legal provisions or Sections in the IPC that prohibit certain forms of speech with exception to free speech.

The conviction rate of cases under Section 153 was as low as 20 per cent in the five years between 2016 and 2020. In 2016, 15.3 per cent of cases ended in convictions, while in 2020, the conviction rate had risen to 20.4 per cent.