Mr. Deepak Dayal, (M.B.A., LL.B.) is the Managing Partner at Dayal Legal Associates, Secretary-General at Society for Legal Reforms and Education, Advocate at the Supreme Court of India, and has been a practitioner for many years with experience in India as well as overseas.

Mr. Dayal has enriched experience in the Banking and Finance sector, owing to his qualification in examinations from Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore College of Insurance, claiming expertise in Regulatory framework, including the laws and regulations, and associated codes, notices, practice notes and guidelines governing the capital markets and life insurance intermediaries in Singapore. He is also qualified in IRDA and AMFI Laws.

Additionally, he is accredited from the DIFC Courts Academy, Dubai, UAE – gaining rich insights and a better understanding of the procedures involved in implementing the DIFC courts’ laws and procedures in practicing cases.

He has served as Senior Member Infrastructure Committee in the PHD Chamber of Commerce and industry, Head of Task Force Corporate Training – ASSOCHAM, and an Executive Member of the committee on civil dispute resolution – Confederation of Indian Industry.

Mr. Dayal further strives to spread this knowledge by serving as a Visiting Lecturer and Guest Speaker in the renowned Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, Dubai and Lincoln University of Business and Management, Dubai, and SP Jain School of Management, Dubai in sharing his treasure of knowledge in International business laws.

As we all know that Twenty-First Century is bitterly known as the Internet Century.  Literally, huge part of the world relies on the internet for various reasons and even it has been declared by the three-judge bench comprising Justice N V Ramana, Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice B.R. Gavai in case Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India and Ors where the petitioner challenged the internet shutdown in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, that “freedom to access the Internet” is a fundamental right and is protected under Article 19(1) (a) – freedom of speech and expression of the Constitution of India. We talked with Mr.Deepak to understand about this subject matter in detail. Here’s the candid conversation: 

According to you, what is that appropriate line one should draw while exercising his right of freedom of speech and expression on internet?

I think one has to be very careful. Young adults should implied like putting themselves in front of their elders- parents, college professors, teachers, future bosses, colleagues, siblings, grandparents, honourable judges; imagine like you are in front of them. All that you would speak in front of them, the language which you would use, the expressions you would use, think like they are in front of you and in such circumstances how you would be behaving in front of them, in that way you would be online.

The reason I am giving you this example because what is happening is people think they are anonymous behind the virtue of being online and can easily do acts of cyber bullying, or set up a fake account and no one will know and they can write and get away with everything. 

The point is anything which we do on such strong technologies where IP addresses can easily be traced; gone are those days where you can get away with such acts. The crime branch of police department, the IT cell today are very strong, they will get to you. You sent the Whatsapp, your number can be traced, and you write something from the fake account, IP addresses can be traced very easily. So, my point is do not write anything, you yourself feel is inappropriate. Just because when you are free at 2 o’ clock in the night from your mobile or laptop writing something or commenting something with the belief that no one is watching you, but in reality everyone is watching you and they exactly know who you are, where you are, and what you are doing. The key is self-restraint is most important because you don’t want to get into trouble with law. And you all are student of law; we all know “Ignorance of law is no excuse”. There cannot be any excuse of ‘Oh! I didn’t know this, as I have not read the privacy policy of Facebook’ or ‘I have not read the Article 19(1)(a) in detail’. Hence, one should be very careful of what you are writing, think like if you are in front of audience and/or known ones, at that point how carefully you will be speaking. So on the internet also, whether it is to your friend or Facebook group, be careful. You cannot as young adults can excuse by saying ‘this was a joke’ or ‘I was just talking to my friend’.

Hence, we have to be careful of our actions, look at yourself and you yourself will come up with the answer. When in doubt, keep your mouth shut, God has given us two ears and one mouth for a basic reason that listen more, absorb more; speak less but wisely and take responsibility of whatever we write on the internet.

Your views on the level of the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression the legal and media fraternity enjoy in the developing world.

The freedom of speech and expression also has to be dealt responsibilities. Like, yes we have right to criticise, but one has to know the difference of opinion, criticism and what lead to defamation, and when are we crossing the line, ‘the Laxman Rekha’. The Honourable Supreme Court has used the word ‘Laxman Rekha’.

Even in developed countries, Singapore, I would say, you cannot speak up against the government. One has to be careful; you can have a very constructive criticism but arbitrarily throwing everywhere allegations stating, “ABC is corrupt” or “XYZ is a criminal” without having a proof and evidence for such claim is wrong.

In fact in a developed country, you can be sued much more and by living in India also you can be sued by them. Hence, you should be careful upon freedom of expression.

Every right comes up with its responsibilities. So, you cannot make a derogatory remark, sexist remark, racial remark or religious remark which hurts the sentiments of someone else. There has been such instances and that’s what courts are doing in India and even oversees that if somebody has made such remarks and in consequence you have violated someone’s sentiments and it can cause them mental trauma, you are liable for it- both civil as well as criminal penalties.

According to you, whether the new perspective of media trial and social media trial is a boom or bane to our system?

Obviously we are seeing the Sushant Sigh suicide/ murder case; we all understand that media trials are absolutely, without any doubt a complete mess.

Media can try and this scenario is not just in India, it has happened and does happen in all other countries like US, UK, Australia as well. This is the Age of Media and every country has 24X7 media coverage, minute by minute there have been updates reporting.

I don’t think there is any disagreement to the fact that Media Trials are absolutely not good for any incident and any country. But media does play an important role because many a times, due to various activities many crimes have been brushed under the carpet.

If you look back in our history also, there have been so many cases which were brought up only because of media, because there was such a mass movement even the honourable courts had to look up and take notice. Not every case goes automatically to CBI for inquiry, CBI comes into play when there is misconduct happening at some stage or it is of such a sensitive matter. So, media does play an important role in highlighting issues, irrespective of political parties or vested interest.

But the moment there is a media trial, obviously it is a complete circus because witnesses are being brought up on the media and are being questioned but that has no validity, even if someone comes up and claim that he has done the crime it does not hold good in law of courts.

But it is very difficult to stop the media and that is where restraining orders are taken these days by individuals as well as various parties in order to stop people from talking to the media. And I think these media trial does hamper real justice, which can only be given in law of courts. As the media scenario is there is a two week hype of a particular case, and suddenly some other case will come up and they will just completely fail to follow up on what is happening on that previous case, because courts will decide and in India, court trials take very long process from the Sessions Courts to District Courts to High Court to Supreme Court, whether it is the Aarushi case or any other case if we look back, they goes for at least 15-20 years and media focusing on them for approximately couple of weeks only.

Also, obviously the conclusion drawn by media draws no relevance; the media can put somebody guilty completely but it has no meaning.

In countries like US, there is a further problem as there is a jury system, made up of individuals who are not even legal experts to take up the decision of the case and they have to keep away from all the social media and news influence is now getting increasingly difficult in those countries as well.

Do you think the increase in media coverage has evolved the entire objective of the media of providing information to the public?

I think media debates are two-edged swords. One needs to understand the difference between news and discussions. Earlier on, news could be coming in 1 hour of news at 7 in the morning and 1 hour at 8 in the evening. Now, we have news channels which are 24X7 and there are over maybe 30 news channels simultaneously. But discussions and opinions people can keep giving over and over again, and by repeating or shouting, something which may be true or might not be true will not change the fact. I think there is an overreach of media, by overreach I mean that media cannot be the advocates and judges and cannot be taking over what honourable courts have to do. You can have a media debate but what is it solving really and concluding someone guilty or not guilty has zero value in the real world, which is in the hands of the court to decide. Like the investigative agency has not even fully started its work and you are declaring someone as culprit of the crime; when the process of investigation takes very long time and that too can be challenged on basis of its admissibility.

Definitely, I think the overreach of news media is harmful to all the sensitive cases.

The boom of the OTT platforms has evolved the entire entertainment sector, but don’t you think that this increase has also lead to increase in easy exposure of dangerous and obscene content to general public. Like, take an example of the series 13 Reasons Why, the series does contain the content related to suicidal acts. Doesn’t this object the moral sentiments of the public? Whether there is a need of Censorship laws related to this platform citing the moral obligations of Media, Entertainment and Advertising industry?

Yes, definitely. This all has been coming under the purview of IT laws. Especially, with the introduction of Netflix, Amazon Prime and many others and its shows and even the releasing of movies on these platforms, there has been the need. The certifications which were required for the movies to be released are not applicable on these platforms. We have smoking scenes, swear words, objectionable content which were not allowed by the Censor Board when released through the official channel of the theatres in India.

Now, it has been released through international platforms outside the purview of the Board. We, ourselves are also in a little flucks to the fact that we have internet connection and mobile and we can go to websites which are streaming all kinds of stuff just a type away.

The government has power to control them and even various developed countries has powerful tools also, but then technology hacks are also available where they are able to bypass the system. It is very challenging in today’s day and age, because these platforms are global, yes they have Indian content but they are being released simultaneously all over the world; we have to look after which countries’ rule to apply, the jurisdiction for same: does Indian laws are applicable.

If the platforms themselves are not based in India, they are based oversees; thus, there is a fundamental question that does India have a direct jurisdiction, can it play a role there or not? Even if we pass laws, will that administration of justice be implemented?

In this case, there are more questions and fewer answers; these questions are those which we are still struggling to get answers and these answers we will only be getting through courts after judgements are declared and only after that things will become clearer as these sectors are evolving right now. In fact it is in current process, especially with COVID 19, every focus is on the internet and technology.

Can our laws keep up with the technological changes and how do we enforce them are the questions we are constantly battling to find the answers.

Even after the SC declared Right to internet as a protected one under the constitution there are many parts of India which still cannot access the internet properly. Such non-availability has deprived them of their right to education (online). What are your views on this and please suggest few measures.

As a lawyer, I will be very clear that laws are made up by the legislation who we elect and we should mainly focus on implementation of the same.

I would also encourage you, young lawyers and law students that do not get in too much debates regarding your views or subject, we can discuss law but we can get into things which we does not have direct control over, because right of education is a fundamental right but if you look into the implementation side what is the literacy rate in India, except for Kerala which has probably the highest literacy rate of somewhere like 80-90%, but if we look at rural India – look around us what is the literacy rate- we are one of the least educated country, when we look at the population of India and part of it who is literate, that number is very low. And that is the difference what we call a developing country and developed country. Education is the fundamental, biggest reason which our Honourable Prime Minister has realised; the focus is on the new education policy and these issues.

Education, explicitly I would say right to access Internet is now becoming the fundamental right because the reach is so much more.

I think my views do not matter and I would say one should not have so many views on these subjects; we need to focus on implementation, understanding and following the rules which are already there. We have one of the best laws in the world, out problems and challenges are in its implementation and execution stage; without blaming bureaucracy and State Government but those are our challenges. So, laws have been really good; our Constitution is absolute and even so many forums have declared Indian Constitution as one of the best in the world. We should be proud of the Constitution which we have, we are no less than the Constitution of America or UK or Australia.

Implementation is where we lack and I am confident that with the support of Young India, the youth of India, we all will get better execution and you ask questions for these also.

Sir, your tips and piece of advice for law students and young lawyers on the New and Emerging Field of Media, Entertainment and Advertising Laws Industry.

According to me, the young generation should definitely focus on as this is the future- The Media, Entertainment, Cyberlaw. Because what is happening is that these laws are very new. Look at the lawyer of 30-40 years of experience, in our time we never knew what mobile was. The internet was discovered in my generation. But all of the young ones have grown up with these technologies, you understand it very well. So what is happening in the young generation already understand technology; law is something you need to understand now. So you all have an edge over very seasoned lawyers because the majority of them do not understand technology. You all understand technology so you all can come up to a lawyer with 30 years of experience in just two years of experience because of this edge. These laws are also very new, like the IT Act itself is very new and the scope and future is this only. Rather than going into mainstream older subjects, like Property law, yes they are important but it is very important to focus on something at the right time and at the right place. So, these sectors, Media, Entertainment, Advertising, and Cyber Laws are better to focus upon. And I am confident enough that you all will have great opportunities, not just in India but overseas as well.

Technological Companies like Amazon, etc. want international lawyers. We know the common law of India, even their laws are not very difficult to comprehend. We are the talent pools, what Engineers and Doctors; you know what India used to export to the rest of the world, now it’s the day and age for Lawyers. Now you all are stressed upon with the fact that you are not getting internships and jobs but that is very short-lived. Just increase your knowledge levels and you will have great opportunities in the next few years, I am very confident upon that.

Interviewed by Mannat Sardana, Research Assistant (Student Division) at Dept of Media, Entertainment and Advertising Laws, Legal Desire