Indian SC judge says majority is not the law

NEW DELHI: Indian Supreme Court judge Justice Deepak Gupta Sunday said that majoritarianism cannot be the law and minority also has the right to express its views, international media reported.

He was giving the Valedictory address on the topic “Law of sedition in India and Freedom of Expression” at a workshop of lawyers at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Berating the recent tendencies to stifle free speechby governments in power using the law of sedition, Justice Gupta in a strongly worded address reminded that in a first past the post system, majoritarianism cannot be the law and minority also has the right to express its views.

“The right of freedom of opinion and the right of freedom of conscience by themselves include the extremely important right to disagree,” Gupta J. said. “Whether one is a believer, an agnostic or an atheist, one enjoys complete freedom of belief and conscience under our Constitution. There can be no impediments on the aforesaid rights except those permitted by the Constitution,” he added.

Justice Gupta also came down upon the tendency to bracket people as anti-national for having a different point of view and criticised the trend of social media trolling due to which people are scared to express their views.

“The world would be a much better place to live, if people could express their opinions fearlessly without being scared of prosecutions or trolling on social media. It is indeed sad that one of our celebrities had to withdraw from social media because he and his family members were trolled or threatened of dire consequences.”