Law Of Sedition UPSC Perspective

Law Of Sedition UPSC Perspective
Source : The Hindu
Polity

What is discussed under Law Of Sedition UPSC Perspective ?

Chief Justice of India criticise the way the sedition law is used by the government to crush liberties.

Why a colonial law used against Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak continued to survive in the law book 75 years after Independence.

What is the news ?
- Sedition is a colonial law and it was used to suppresses freedoms.
- It was used against Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak and sedition law or Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, was
  prone to misuse by the government.
- A number of petitions have been filed highlighting the chilling effect sedition has on the fundamental right of free speech.
What is Law Of Sedition UPSC Perspective ?
- Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
  Image by Augusto Ordóñez from Pixabay
- It deals with sedition was drafted by Thomas Babington Macaulay that was included in the IPC in 1870.
- The Law : Whoever, words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in India shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine
Impact on person
- It is a non bailable offence.
- Person who is charged under 124A cant be applied for government jobs.
Comments made against the law by various personalities
- Mahatma Gandhi called Section 124A “the prince among the political sections design to suppress the liberty of citizens.
- Jawaharlal Nehru : obnoxious and highly objectionable.

IPC was brought into force in colonial India 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.
- Inserted on the grounds that it was dropped from the original IPC draft by mistake.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Jawaharlal Nehru are accused under the law.
- First case was against Jogendra Chandra Bose editor of Bangobasi (Queen-Empress v. Jogendra Chunder Bose & Ors., (1892) ILR 19 Cal 35) while he criticised Age of consent Bill in 1891.
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak ( Queen-Empress v. Bal Gangadhar Tilak & Keshav Mahadev Bal) was the first person to be convicted of sedition in colonial India by the Bombay high court.
- Tilak’s Marathi newspaper Kesari would encourage people to foil the government’s efforts at curbing the plague epidemic
- Trial against Mahatma Gandhi in 1922.
Privy Council that was the highest court of appeal based in London by 1937.
Section 124A continued to stay in the IPC even after the declaration of Constitution that provide Article 19(1)(a) gave absolute freedom of speech and expression.
The case of Tara Singh Gopi Chand v. The State (1951) was the first instance of a court in independent India adjudicating on the constitutional validity of section 124A of the IPC.
Kedar Nath Singh which is considered the most authoritative judgement of the Supreme Court on the interpretation of the sedition law.

Mostly the supporters favoured the law argues that the law deals with Anti National Elements and terrorist of the society.
India have the law for punishment for contempt of court in the same way the government act should be protected to a limit.
India is prone to internal disturbances caused by anti-government group like Maoist threats and other group who are trying to over-through the government by advocating through various means.
Government established by law should be required for a peaceful existence of various sections of the society.

The sedition clause is a part of British colonial rule to suppress critical voices from the Indian freedom movement.
IPC we have today was absent from the original draft of Macaulay’s IPC in 1860, and was only introduced in the year 1870.
Britishers who introduced the law now abolishes the sedition law through Section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
In India there are alternative law placed through Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 2019 to penalize disrupting the public order” or “overthrowing the government with violence and illegal means.
India is a signatory and ratified International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which favoured Freedom of Speech.

Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Senegal and Turkey are among the few countries that deals with sedition as a criminal act.
United Kingdom
- In India sedition law was implemented by colonial era the same and UK now abolished the sedition law.
- Sedition by an alien resident but not a national of the country however is an offence.
- Section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 abolishes sedition and seditious libel.
United States of America
- Section 2385 of the US Code deals with treason, sedition and subversive activities.
- Also deals with advocating overthrow of government.
- In fact US rarely enforced to uphold the freedom of speech.
- Major part of the law was struck down by the US
Malaysian Sedition Act 1948
- laws on sedition against any ruler, ruling government, administration of justice and rights and privileges under the Federal Constitution
- It also includes the prohibitions on racial hate-speech.
Indonesia
- They declared sedition law as unconstitutional.
- The Dutch government implemented the law during colonial period.
South Korea
- South Korea abolishes the sedition law.
- The democratic and legal reforms in 1988 decided to abolish the sedition law.

There is an imminent need to relook the invocation of sedition under section 124A.
Importantly it ensure that the offence is used within defined legal limits so as to strike a balance between national security and the fundamental rights of citizens.

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