Lawfare
Also called: SLAPP, political misuse of criminal law · Topic: Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Remedies · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Lawfare means using court cases as a weapon against an opponent. The aim is to harass, tire out or silence the other side, not to win justice. It is not a term in any Act or article. It is a word critics use for this kind of misuse, often of criminal defamation, sedition-type laws or repeated police complaints against political rivals, journalists or activists. The case itself becomes the punishment. The accused must attend hearings for years, spend money and live with a criminal charge, even if they are finally cleared. A related term is SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation): a case filed mainly to stop someone from speaking on public issues. Lawfare matters because it can chill free speech under Art. 19(1)(a) without any court ever holding that the speech was unlawful.
Example
In Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India (2016), the Supreme Court upheld criminal defamation as protecting reputation under Art. 21. It said that the chance of a law being misused does not, by itself, make it unconstitutional. So the protection against lawfare has to come case by case. A trial court can refuse to summon the accused when it first screens the complaint, or a High Court can quash the case.
Don't confuse with
- Criminal defamation: an actual offence, now BNS s.356, and a valid ground for limiting speech under Art. 19(2). Lawfare is not an offence. It is the misuse of laws like this one to harass someone.
- Public interest litigation: a case filed to protect the rights of others or the public. Lawfare uses cases to silence an opponent.