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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Sedition Laws Have No Place In A Democracy

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-06-02 10:41:58

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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 “quieten the disquiet”. That is exactly what governments are trying to do. They are just trying to muzzle dissent using Section 124A. 

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