LEGALITY OF BOOK BANNING
?What is Book Banning?
Book Banning is a practice of banning & withdrawing the circulation of the book in the market which contain the content which promote the social political issue or promote the differences between the different group on the basis of religion.
The concept of book banning was unknown in India until the Britishers introduced this concept to protect their imperial hegemony.
Earlier during the period of 7th century BC, people used to perform the practice of book burning instead of book banning. Book burning is done ceremonially in the public to generate public condemnation of the material. After the introduction book banning, the practice book burning was not at all practised as book banning is a more civilised form of book burning.
In the due west, Paperback outlawing is as old-fashioned as Paperback Composing. Martin Luther’s translation of the bible was banned in Germany in the 17th century.
The book Dwikhandita has been banned by state government because the two paragraph of that book was not at all suitable for some readers as it was promoting the differences between the different groups on the basis of religion
?Introduction of Legality of book-Banning
?Laws which are used in India to restrain literature are Sections 124,153 and 252 of IPC, also their several other act like the post office Act, the office secret Act, the customs Act, and the press registration Act of 1867. These laws were made by British Raj which was used by new liberated colony to prevent the press from speaking and to curb the literature.
The requirements which are commonly used while forbidding books in India are:
·????????Section 292 of the IPC: This section?criminalises the sale of obscene books. Content is deemed to be objectionable if it is “lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest” or if it is likely to “deprave and corrupt” a person.
·????????Section 19(2) of the Indian Bill: Under Section 19(2), acceptable restrictions may be put on the specific right of freedom of speech and expression on specific grounds including community request, decency or morality.
·????????Section 153B of IPC: It is an infringement under Section 153B to make or print any statement which affects or is likely to affect “conflict or emotions of anger” amongst followers of any holy or section group or social group or society. Taslima Nasreen’s?Dwikhandita?was?banned under section 153B.
·????????Article 95 of the System of Criminal Procedure: Article 95 empowers the administration to proclaim journals (which include material illegal under part 153B) as lost and to issue search and seizure orders.
?What is the Law for Book Banning?
?The?law which is used to?ban books or to prevent sale and production of certain?books?comes under Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which confers powers on the State Administration to?ban?a?paperback?if it?comprises content that may "encourage, or challenge to encourage, hatred among is similar groups on grounds of religious conviction or conflict, or sense of hatred, hatred or unkind-will among dissimilar religious groups and the publication of such matters is punishable under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code."?Section 153A of IPC provides punishments for acts which?promoting enmity between different groups on fields of religious conviction, race, area of childbirth, house, foreign language,?with others.
Procedure of banning a book in India
To ban a book in India, the government take recourse of two statutes. The first one is Custom Act, 1962, this Act prevent the import of books in India to stop the circulation of books which the Indian government don’t want to sell in the markets. The other method is to stop the production or selling of such books under the section 95 of criminal procedure code 1973, which gives the power to state government to declare any newspaper, document or book which offends the provision of penal code.
Provision of Penal Code are-
Section 124-A, section 153-A (promoting ill will between two groups based on religion, language, caste), section 153-B (imputing disloyalty of country to any such group), section 292 (obscene literature), section 293 (sale of obscene literature to the young), section 295-A (insult to religious feelings of any such groups of citizen)
The administration however uses these conditions to protect its party-political objectives. There are many instances of book banning invoking the above mentioned sections of Indian Penal Code.
Section 11 of custom Act reads-
If the Main Administration is pleased that it is essential so to do for any of the reasons specific in secondary-section?and ?it may, by announcement in the Authorised Journal, ban either absolutely or focus on such topic (to be satisfied before or after permission) as may be stated in the statement
Sub section 2 says that-
(a) The maintenance of the security of India;
(b)?The upkeep of community demand and levels of morality or ethics;
(c)?The prevention of smuggling;
(d)?The avoidance of scarcity of supplies of any kind;
(e)?The management of overseas trade and the protecting or sense of balance of expenses;
(f)?The avoidance of damage to the financial system of the nation by the unrestrained trade in or transfer of gold bars or silvery;
(g)?The avoidance of excess of any farming produce or the product of peccaries;
(h)?The protection of guidelines for the category, classifying or advertising of commodities in world-wide market;
(i)?The establishment of any industry;
(j)?The avoidance of significant damage to local making of commodities of any type;
(k)?The safety of human being, creature or factory existence or wellbeing;
(l)?The safety of state assets of creative, ancient or archaic logic quantity;
(m)?The conservation of exhaustible natural resources;
(n)?The safety of rights and exclusive rights;
(o)?The prevention of deceptive practices;
(p)?The carrying on of foreign trade in any goods by the State, or by a Corporation owned or controlled by the State to the exclusion, complete or partial, or citizens of India;
(q)?The realisation of responsibilities under the Contract of the United Nations for the upkeep of world-wide harmony and protection;
(r)?The completion of any agreement or meeting with any nation;
(s)?The submission of trade incommodities with any regulations which are related to comparable commodities manufactured or constructed in India;
(t)?The avoidance of distribution of records comprising any subject which is likely to influence sociable contacts with any overseas Nation.
(u)?The avoidance of the infringement of any rule for the moment in time being in power; and
(v)?Any other objective favourable to the benefits of the common people.
?The trend of banning books in India has now decreased a lot due to the active interference of judiciary into matter of banning books in India which has represented a liberal outlook towards book banning and limited the scope of book banning in India.
?Reasons in favour of book banning
?1. Legal issues- The judiciary often takes a stand in banning books on several basis and sometimes even defines vague terms which generally influence the decision to ban books all over the country.
?2. Historical issues- In this books are banned because of misinterpretation of historical facts and events, also insults to revered historical figures.
?3. Political issues- In this book banning is used as a political tool by politician to serve their political interest or where a political connation has been attached to the issue of book banning.?
?4. Religious issues – There are many religious issues like
?????*blasphemy
?????*fundamentalism/extremism
?????*influence of dominant religious group
?????*making a charade of a respected spiritual illustration
?????*offending the sensibilities of a particular religious group
?5. Social issues – social issues be like
?????*communalism
?????*public sentiment with respect to vulgarity
?????*racial issues
?????*propagation of hatred and inequity among numerous community groups
???????*exertion of external influence
?Reasons against book banning
1.Spreading awareness- Banning of books prevent accessibility of knowledge about a particular social issue due to which there will not be any awareness.
2. Academic development- It is important that academic keeps discipline like history open to any and all academic exploration and interpretation. It is essential to not only protect assets but allow unrestricted entrance to it, along with the autonomy to clarify and convey.
3. Misinterpretation and fear of possible consequences- Most of the books which are banned are not even read by the authorities. FIR are registered based on public & cases are carried forward based on objection of certain societal groups, which often arises from misrepresentation of text in question.
4. Legal aspect- The judiciary in India is adopting a more liberal approach with respect to interpretation of challenged books.
5.Democratic values- The central argument against the banning of books is that the practice is in contravention of fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed by Article 19(1) of constitution of India, and does not fall within the ambit of reasonable restriction as defined by article 19.
?The most popular reason against book banning is that the practice is not in favours the democratic ideal of freedom of speech and expression, as guaranteed by article 19 of constitution of India.
Several times, the meaning of text in question may be misconstrued leading to misinterpretation of book and intend behind it. Many a times, authorities banning the book do not read it and it is withdrawn from circulation only due to the fear of possible consequences.
?CONCLUSION
The lawfulness of book forbidding is attributed to the outlook of the society, prevailing law within the society, political maturity and therefore the intellectual understanding of the society, towards the dissident literatures. If a bunch has moderate viewpoint, the decree that organization isn't reliable, the electoral theme is powerful and established and therefore the cluster is showing intelligence established the procedure of forbidding dissident literature would be alien. The wide scope for censorship given to the govt. is probably a product of the acute diversity of Asian nation with its giant selection in terms of races, creeds, spiritual and social categories, it's significantly vital to not provoke any specific section of the population. we've seen the capriciousness of the Indian crowds once it goes to their religion, and this has affected a considerable amount of bloodshed and pain within the story of this country. In Fact, the terribly starting of this country was complemented on the bottom of religion. The ugly effects of Partition beyond question diode our foundation fathers to the realisation that the interests and sentiments of all religions, particularly spiritual minorities, had to be protected within the worldly electoral nation that Asian nation needed to be. Thus, within the bigger concern of domestic coordination and protection, the administration has been keen to limit the proper to expression of the person in some cases. This appears to be the sensible factor to do the perfect of Liberty of Expression would mean nothing if we have a tendency to were unendingly engaged in common fights or riots on the premise of offensive material. The authentic apply of this right is possible solely in an exceedingly developed smart set that makes bound budgets in argument for fulfilling with its laws. Thus, one should commend the long-sightedness of the framers of the Indian Government. All the same, this has been questioned by several proponents of free speech. They assert that it makes it exceptionally easy for the authority to outlaw paperbacks and perform restriction, therefore disabling democratic system. Each paperback that's prohibited or altered is performed thanks to the matter at intervals the sheets. There square measure many standard explanations that paperbacks are prohibited or aren't allowed in universities, library, and paperback retailers. Several books are illegal or censored in one or additional of those classes thanks to a mis-judgment or misunderstanding regarding the books contents book could are illegal or labelled a definite method, it's vital that the reader makes his/her own judgments on the book. Several books that are illegal or censored later were born from illegal books lists and were now not thought-about moot. However, forbidding a piece of literature or art isn't one thing that the govt. of a democracy like ours would do lightly: it's a move that's hospitable the scrutiny of the general public, and sometimes invitations tons of criticism from the plenty, from intellectuals, the media and journalists. It’s a curtailment of a right that, within the eyes of the many, should not be curtailed unless completely inescapable. This inherent safeguard: that of opinion and intellectual discourse restricts the capricious exercise of this censoring power.
AUTHOR
NAMAN BANSAL - BBA LLB (H)
THE NORTHCAP UNIVERSITY (GURUGRAM)