Civil society, media and challenges to democratic practice

Detail

1. Civil society: the bridge between citizens and the state

• Civil society means the voluntary space between the family and the state. It includes voluntary groups, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and community associations that citizens run themselves, not the government.
• What it does: it links citizens with the state.
• PIL (Public Interest Litigation): a case filed in a court for the good of the public, not for one person's private gain.

• Campaigns and community organisations: these raise local problems and put pressure on governments to act.

• Pressure groups are groups that try to shape government policy without contesting elections. Civil society often works through them (pointer: civil-society-pressure-groups).

2. The RTI story: from a demand by civil society to a law

• How the demand grew into a law:
• MKSS (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan) held public hearings (jan sunwai) in Rajasthan. In these hearings, villagers checked official records of wages and public works in the open.
• The NCPRI (National Campaign for People's Right to Information) took the demand to the whole country.

• Parliament passed the Right to Information Act, 2005.

• RTI Act, 2005 is Act No. 22 of 2005. It received the President's assent on 15 June 2005 and came into force on 12 October 2005 [7].

• The Act sets up a Central Information Commission (CIC), which is formed by a notification in the Official Gazette. The CIC hears complaints and appeals under the Act [7].
• NCERT's box: while making the law, legislators added safeguards for national security and administrative efficiency. Some information can therefore be withheld.
• Lesson: transparency (openness about what the government does) makes accountability possible. Accountability means the government must answer for its actions (pointer: transparency-accountability).

3. Media: the "fourth pillar"

• Fourth pillar of democracy: the media stands next to the legislature, executive and judiciary. It informs people, voices public concerns and raises issues that the government must answer.
• Press freedom is not written in the Constitution in so many words. Courts have read it into Art. 19(1)(a), the freedom of speech and expression.
• Romesh Thappar v. State of Madras (1950): freedom of speech includes freedom to circulate ideas. A ban on a journal's entry into a state was struck down.

• Sakal Papers v. Union of India (1962): the state cannot limit a newspaper's pages or price in order to curb its circulation. That would violate Art. 19(1)(a).

• Limit: speech can be restricted only on the grounds listed in Art. 19(2), for example sovereignty, security of the state, public order, decency or defamation.

4. Challenges to democratic practice

Class 9 list (Democracy chapter):

Challenge	What it means in practice
Illiteracy	Voters cannot easily check claims or understand policies
Fake news on social media	Sways opinion; can incite conflict
Inequality and poverty	Unequal voice; votes can be bought
Regionalism	Loyalty to a region placed above the nation
Gender inequality, caste and social discrimination	Equal citizenship is denied
Implementation gaps	Laws exist on paper but are not carried out, so trust erodes
Civic lapses	Damaging public property, breaking rules, indifference

Class 7 additions (Types of Governments chapter): corruption, wealth disparity, capture of institutions by a few, erosion of judicial independence and manipulation of information channels.

5. Misinformation and the law

• Misinformation is false or misleading content, spread especially on social media. It can distort opinion and votes and even spark violence.
• Deepfake: a fake video, audio clip or image made with AI that looks real.
• Free-speech limit, Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015):
• The Supreme Court struck down s.66A of the IT Act, 2000 in its judgment of 24 March 2015 [6].
• Section 66A had punished vaguely "offensive" online posts.

• The Court held that it violated Art. 19(1)(a) and was not saved by Art. 19(2). Its offences were vague, undefined and open-ended, so it invaded free speech arbitrarily, excessively and disproportionately [6].

• IT Rules, 2021 (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code): these rules set duties for platforms. An intermediary is a platform that carries other people's content, such as a social media site.

• Fact-check unit (FCU): a 2023 amendment to the IT Rules let a government FCU mark online content about the Union government as "fake". The Bombay High Court struck it down in Kunal Kamra v. Union of India (2024).
• Election Commission of India (ECI):
• The ECI keeps a "Myth vs Reality" register, which answers false claims about elections.
• The ECI has advised political parties not to misuse AI tools to make deepfakes that distort information or spread misinformation [4].
• Parties, candidates and star campaigners must label AI-made or synthetic campaign content prominently, using tags such as "AI-Generated", "Digitally Enhanced" or "Synthetic Content" [4]. Later directions also require them to name the entity that created the content [5].
• For the 2026 general elections and bye-elections, the ECI directed that misleading or unlawful AI-made content must be acted upon within 3 hours of being reported to the social media platform [5].

6. The Emergency (1975–77): a lesson in democratic resilience

Background (history in emergency-1975):

• The Emergency followed inflation and unemployment and Jayaprakash Narayan's (JP's) movement in Gujarat and Bihar.
• At midnight on 25 June 1975, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed the proclamation on the advice of PM Indira Gandhi [3].
• It was a national emergency under Art. 352, proclaimed on the ground of "internal disturbance". It lasted from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977 [3].

What happened:

• Most fundamental rights were suspended.
• The press was censored.
• Opposition leaders were jailed. Lakhs of people were detained [3].

Outcome: voters defeated the ruling party in the 1977 Lok Sabha election. This showed that democracy can recover through the ballot.

Judicial lesson:

• ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla (1976) is also called the "habeas corpus case". Habeas corpus is a writ (court order) that asks the state to produce a detained person and justify the detention.

• The Supreme Court held that during the Emergency a detained person could not go to court to enforce the right to life and personal liberty (Art. 21).

• K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), a nine-judge bench, overruled ADM Jabalpur. Life and liberty are natural rights and cannot be wiped out by the state.

Constitutional learning: 44th Amendment (1978) (pointer: emergency-provisions)

Point	Before 1978	After the 44th Amendment
Ground for national emergency (Art. 352)	War, external aggression or "internal disturbance"	War, external aggression or "armed rebellion" [8]
Advice to the President	Oral advice of the PM was enough	Written decision of the Union Cabinet is needed
Suspension of fundamental rights (Art. 359)	Any Part III right could be suspended	Arts. 20 and 21 can never be suspended

• The new Article 352 brought in by the 44th Amendment took effect on 20 June 1979 [8].

Procedure for a national emergency under Art. 352 (after 1978):

1. Union Cabinet's written decision goes to the President.
2. President issues the proclamation.
3. Both Houses must approve it within one month by a special majority. This means a majority of the total membership of the House and two-thirds of the members present and voting [8].
4. Once approved, it lasts six months. It can be extended every six months by fresh approval with the same special majority [8].
5. Revocation: - The Lok Sabha can pass a resolution by a simple majority to end it. - One-tenth of Lok Sabha members can demand a special sitting for this [8].

Other emergency articles (NCERT glossary):

• Art. 352: national emergency.
• Art. 356: President's rule in a state. It applies when the state's constitutional machinery fails, and the Union then runs the state.
• Art. 360: financial emergency.

Commemoration: a gazette notification dated 11 July 2024 declared that 25 June will be observed every year as "Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas". The name means "Constitution Murder Day". It remembers those who suffered during the Emergency [2].

7. Civic responsibility: "Democracy and You" / "Think, Discuss, Act"

• Stay informed. Check news before sharing it, and use social media responsibly.
• Serve the community through the NSS (National Service Scheme) or the NCC (National Cadet Corps).
• Follow the Fundamental Duties (Art. 51A, Part IVA). Examples:
• Abide by the Constitution.
• Safeguard public property.

• Promote harmony.

• Why it matters: democracy works only when citizens take part. Laws and institutions alone are not enough.

Prelims Hooks

• Press freedom is not stated in the Constitution in so many words. It is read into Art. 19(1)(a) through Romesh Thappar (1950) and Sakal Papers (1962).
• RTI Act, 2005: assent 15 June 2005, in force 12 October 2005. It created the Central Information Commission. Its roots lie in the MKSS jan sunwai in Rajasthan [7].
• Shreya Singhal (2015) struck down s.66A of the IT Act, 2000 for vagueness. The provision was not saved by Art. 19(2) [6].
• Kunal Kamra (2024) was decided by the Bombay High Court, not the Supreme Court. It struck down the 2023 fact-check unit amendment to the IT Rules.
• 44th Amendment (1978): "internal disturbance" was replaced by "armed rebellion" in Art. 352. It also made the written advice of the Cabinet necessary and made Arts. 20–21 non-suspendable.
• Trap: the 1975 Emergency was proclaimed under Art. 352 (national emergency), not Art. 356 (President's rule) or Art. 360 (financial emergency).
• ADM Jabalpur (1976), the habeas corpus case, was overruled by Puttaswamy (2017).
• 25 June is Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas. It was notified on 11 July 2024 [2].
• ECI labels for synthetic campaign content are "AI-Generated", "Digitally Enhanced" and "Synthetic Content" [4].

Mains Points

• Civil society as a democratic deepener (GS-II):
• The RTI movement (MKSS → NCPRI → RTI Act, 2005) shows how citizen pressure becomes law.

• The security and efficiency safeguards show the trade-off between transparency and governance needs.

• Regulating misinformation vs protecting free speech (GS-II):

• Shreya Singhal and Kunal Kamra warn against vague laws and against the state acting as judge of truth.
• Labelling rules, quick takedowns and the ECI's Myth vs Reality register are narrower tools that fit Art. 19(2).

• Reform ideas: digital and media literacy, independent fact-checkers, and transparent platform rules.

• The Emergency as a stress test (GS-I and GS-II):

• The 1977 election showed that voters can correct abuse of power.
• The 44th Amendment and Puttaswamy built legal safeguards so that such abuse cannot repeat.

• Even so, safeguards depend on an independent judiciary, a free press and alert citizens.

• Structural challenges: illiteracy, poverty, inequality, capture of institutions and implementation gaps weaken democracy from inside.

• The answer combines institutional reform with civic responsibility (Art. 51A, NSS/NCC, informed voting).