Lawfully yours: By Retd Justice K Chandru

CHENNAI: Catch them young to inculcate civic sense and responsibility

Spitting in public is one of the primary causes of the spread of communicable diseases. Think of the innumerable feet and tyres trampling the spit and taking it home. Also, seeing one spitting in front of you is insulting and frustrating. The other day, a luxury car slowed down near the eco-park on Poonamallee High Road and the driver spat a massive load of pan juice onto the painted pavement. With civic sense sadly missing, can’t there be a better tackle of this public offence?

— Sivapriya Selvarajan, Kilpauk

Until the COVID-19 pandemic struck, people were not covering their mouths or noses with a mask. Even coughing can spread the virus/bacteria and people had to be educated on this. Just like today’s civic warnings “don’t urinate here” or “don’t throw garbage here”, in earlier days billboards were cautioning that no spitting in public was allowed. Unable to control the menace, there were spittoons installed in many public places. It is only after the pandemic coupled with penalties that people started obeying civic rules. What is required is teaching children early on the dangers of violating civic duties so that at least our future generation can be saved from these menaces. No amount of law can put civic sense into people.

In a democracy, governments must uphold the media’s right to free speech. But what we are witnessing instead in India is the government shooting the messenger. The situation is so bad that India’s ranking has further slipped, according to the latest reports, with even Pakistan and Afghanistan faring better. Who are to blame for the situation — the lawmakers or the media themselves? Will the courts speak out so that people’s voices don’t get suppressed?

— Venkatesa Madhavan, Sholinganallur

Free speech rights are only on paper. Though the Constitution guarantees free speech, it is not absolute and is subject to “reasonable restrictions”. It is the courts which are empowered to decide as to what are reasonable restrictions on a case-to-case basis. Even there you will find a number of people getting convicted for criminal defamation like Rahul Gandhi or convicted for contempt of court. Newspapers have been told that their right to free expression is no higher than the ordinary citizen. There are many other laws under which prosecution is launched such as Information Technology Act etc. Notwithstanding this fact, the Supreme Court held section 66-A of the IT Act invalid on the ground that it is likely to be misused. Still, several hundred prosecutions are pending. Besides these hurdles, there are some private groups which enforce their “own discipline” and gag free speech. In this context to achieve free speech, that too with the courts’ help, will only be a mirage.