Sedition Laws Have No Place In A Democracy
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-06-02 10:41:58
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The sedition law in India, as currently worded, is open to be used discriminately and mischievously by law enforcers even after the judicial intervention in narrowing its application in the Kedar Nath Singh judgment. The open ended words in Section 124A of the IPC are enough to let the police move against people on trumped-up charges and even for some courts to hand out technical judgments that punish even those who do not strictly indulge in wrongdoing. Journalists, opinion makers and news outlets have always borne the brunt of the state's oppression when the law has been used against them for holding and airing views that were not to the liking of the ruling dispensation, either at the Centre or in the states.
Hence, it is good that while providing relief to some Telugu channels charged with sedition, a bench of the Supreme Court has decided to define the limits of the section. Another bench is going to examine the constitutional validity of the provision. Although the benches might either put shackles on the provision or might do away with it entirely, one is sure that the government will come up with another, similar but differently worded, law. All political parties are similar when it comes to criticism and dissent. This was proved recently when the LDF in Kerala and Nitish Kumar in Bihar tried to bring in laws to crush dissent. These laws were over and above the sedition laws and gave sweeping powers to the police. Thankfully, public awareness and media pressure made the respective governments junk them.
But, seriously, the time has now come to junk the colonial-era sedition provisions in Indian laws. Other than curb free speech and debate, these provisions also curb the public's right to be informed and in case of journalists, the right to carry out one's profession in a free, fair and unhindered manner. Since the government does not manage to get too many people convicted under the said provisions, it has only become a tool to harass people and deter them from speaking out against the ruling dispensation. Dharmender Rana, additional sessions judge in Delhi had put it excellently recently when he said that sedition laws cannot be invoked to âquieten the disquietâ. That is exactly what governments are trying to do. They are just trying to muzzle dissent using Section 124A.
