{"id":183677,"date":"2022-05-10T20:24:47","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T14:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=183677"},"modified":"2022-05-10T20:28:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T14:58:19","slug":"centres-plan-to-relook-at-sedition-law-is-welcome-but-supreme-court-must-take-the-review-process-to-its-logical-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/centres-plan-to-relook-at-sedition-law-is-welcome-but-supreme-court-must-take-the-review-process-to-its-logical-conclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Centre\u2019s plan to relook at sedition law is welcome but Supreme Court must take the review process to its logical conclusion\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News:<\/span><\/b> The government has expressed its views to shed colonial baggage after 75 years since independence, and has told the Supreme Court that it would re-examine the provision. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About Sedition law<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The provision (Section 124A) of the Indian Penal Code was incorporated in its current form in the penal code (IPC) in 1898, nearly four decades after the IPC was introduced. <\/span><\/p>\n

It defines the offence of \u201csedition\u201d as exciting \u201cdisaffection\u201d against the government established by law, or bringing it into \u201chatred or contempt\u201d and penalises such an action. <\/span><\/p>\n

The punishment prescribed ranges from <\/span>life imprisonment <\/span><\/b>with an <\/span>added fine<\/span><\/b> or an <\/span>additional ja<\/span><\/b>il term of <\/span>three year<\/span><\/b>s.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Constitutionality of Section 124A of the IPC<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

First, <\/span>the Punjab High court<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>the Allahabad high<\/span><\/b> court struck down the sedition law as an exception to free speech in the 1950s,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, the Supreme Court in <\/span>Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar (1962<\/span><\/b>) upheld its constitutionality. The SC said not all speech with \u201cdisaffection\u201d, \u201chatred,\u201d or \u201ccontempt\u201d against the state are seditious. The speech that is likely to incite \u201c<\/span>public disorder<\/span><\/b>\u201d would qualify as sedition.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Argument against<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The sedition law became obsolete in <\/span>the UK<\/span><\/b> in the 1960s and was finally repealed in 2009. In fact, <\/span>Singapore<\/span><\/b>, which like India inherited <\/span>colonial English law<\/span><\/b>, has also repealed the sedition law.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, <\/span>the Law Commission<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>the Supreme Court<\/span><\/b> in their <\/span>successive reports<\/span><\/b> have reported the <\/span>rampant misuse<\/span><\/b> of the law. For example, the provision has been invoked against comedians, journalists and ordinary citizens who expressed their <\/span>dissatisfaction<\/span><\/b> with the government.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Supreme Court<\/span><\/b> has decided to <\/span>revisit<\/span><\/b> the <\/span>constitutional validity <\/span><\/b>of the sedition law which is a colonial provision.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Home Ministry<\/span><\/b> asked the SC to defer the hearing for now till a \u201c<\/span>competent forum<\/span><\/b>\u201d, presumably Parliament, <\/span>deliberates<\/span><\/b> on the issue of sedition law.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>authority<\/span><\/b> to identify and distinguish <\/span>genuine expression of speech<\/span><\/b> from <\/span>seditious speech<\/span><\/b> should not be left to the police<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on an article \u201cCentre\u2019s plan to relook at sedition law is welcome but Supreme Court must take the review process to its logical conclusion<\/strong>\u201d published in the Indian Express<\/strong> on 10<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong> May 2022<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: The government has expressed its views to shed colonial baggage after 75 years since independence, and has told the Supreme Court that it would re-examine the provision. \u00a0 About Sedition law\u00a0 The provision (Section 124A) of the Indian Penal Code was incorporated in its current form in the penal code (IPC) in 1898, nearly… Continue reading Centre\u2019s plan to relook at sedition law is welcome but Supreme Court must take the review process to its logical conclusion\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-183677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704637576},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}