{"id":247852,"date":"2023-06-14T20:01:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T14:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=247852"},"modified":"2023-06-14T20:01:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T14:31:46","slug":"where-anyone-can-be-accused-of-sedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/where-anyone-can-be-accused-of-sedition\/","title":{"rendered":"Where anyone can be accused of sedition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cWhere anyone can be accused of sedition\u201d <\/strong>published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 14th June 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 2 – Governance \u2013 Criminal Justice System<\/p>\n

Relevance- <\/strong>Issues related to law having chilling impacts on fundamental rights<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The 279th Law Commission Report, laid down the grounds for retaining sedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Must read <\/strong>– Law Commission\u2019s recommendations on sedition and its\u00a0relevance\u00a0\u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What are the significant recommendations of the Commission? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Section 124A<\/strong> of the IPC<\/strong> should be amended to incorporate the meaning of sedition which was laid down by the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar<\/strong> in 1962.<\/p>\n

The minimum sentence should<\/strong> be increased from three to seven years.<\/p>\n

FIR in sedition cases should be registered only after a police officer, holding the rank of an Inspector or higher, makes a \u201cpreliminary enquiry”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is criticism against the recommendations by the Commission?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tendency jurisdiction<\/strong>– The Commission claims that only those forms of expressions<\/strong> will be penalised which have a tendency to incite violence<\/strong>. \u201cTendency\u201d means mere inclination to incite violence<\/strong> rather than proof of actual violence or imminent threat to violence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposed amendment will not fundamentally alter the meaning of sedition. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tendency\u2019 is a vague term<\/strong>. It brought expressions which have no direct connection with public disorder<\/strong> under the ambit of law. The \u2018tendency\u2019 jurisprudence<\/strong> is an ambiguous standard<\/strong> for any judicial and executive.<\/p>\n

Police enquiry<\/strong>– The Commission has proposed that the police should conduct a preliminary enquiry. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an even more ambiguous standard<\/strong>. Police have to now judge a particular act on mere inclination to violence<\/strong>. No proof of violence or even actual threat to violence<\/strong> is needed.<\/p>\n

It paves the way further for more police power,<\/strong> especially where the FIR is the result of complicity with persons who have local, state, or national political clout.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ground realities<\/strong>– The Commission also disregarded developments in foreign jurisdictions <\/strong>which have invalidated sedition laws. It has stated that the \u201cground realities\u201d<\/strong> are different in other countries. In fact, it turns a blind eye to the ground realities in India. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court in 2021 admitted multiple petitions challenging the constitutionality of Section 124A <\/strong>due to confusion caused by the Kedar Nath Singh<\/em> <\/strong>precedent.<\/p>\n

Emphasis on colonial legacy<\/strong>– The Commission cites continuities from colonial times, such as the civil services and the police system, to justify sedition. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It fails to distinguish \u2018colonial\u2019 as a merely historical category from a political system<\/strong> impacted by domination, violence and inequality.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cWhere anyone can be accused of sedition\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 14th June 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 – Governance \u2013 Criminal Justice System Relevance- Issues related to law having chilling impacts on fundamental rights News– The 279th Law Commission Report, laid down the grounds for… Continue reading Where anyone can be accused of sedition<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"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":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-247852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247852","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\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}