Plea Challenges Sedition Law:
A petition was filed in the Supreme court (SC), that seeks a relook into the Sedition Law.
- The nearly-60-year old judgment helped sedition to survive in Indian Penal Code.
- The 1962 judgment in the KedarNath case, which upheld Section 124A (sedition), a relic of the colonial legacy, was given at a time when doctrines such as ‘chilling effect’ (Deterring effect resulting from restrictive law) on free speech were unheard of.
- It was delivered at a time when scope and inter-relationship of fundamental rights were rather restrictive.
- In the Kedar Nath judgment, the court had reasoned that without Section 124A, the State would be in jeopardy if the government was subverted. It, however, said that Section 124A would apply only to expressions that either intended to or had the tendency to cause violence were punishable as ‘sedition’.
Court’s Ruling:
- It sends a strong message to the government that sedition is being misused by the authorities to trample upon citizens’ fundamental rights of free speech and liberty.
- SC made it clear that the court is sensitive to the public demand to judicially review the manner in which law enforcement authorities are using the sedition law to control free speech and send journalists, activists and dissenters to jail, and keep them there.
- Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code may have passed its time.
- The Court said “a statute criminalising expression based on unconstitutionally vague definitions of ‘disaffection towards Government’ etc. is an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right to free expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1)(a) and causes constitutionally impermissible ‘Chilling Effect’ on speech”.
Sedition Law:
- Sedition laws were enacted in 17th century England when lawmakers believed that only good opinions of the government should survive, as bad opinions were detrimental to the government and monarchy.
- The law was originally drafted in 1837 by Thomas Macaulay, the British historian-politician, but was inexplicably omitted when the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was enacted in 1860.
- Section 124A was inserted in 1870 by an amendment introduced by Sir James Stephen when it felt the need for a specific section to deal with the offence.
- It was one of the many draconian laws enacted to stifle any voices of dissent at that time.
- It was used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
- Sedition Law Today: Sedition is a crime under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
