Indian SC questions need for sedition law after Independence

NEW DELHI: The Indian Supreme Court has questioned the need for the sedition law after the British Raj.

While hearing a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the sedition law, Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana Thursday asked Attorney General K K Venugopal whether the law is still needed after 75 years of Independence.

“Dispute is that it is a colonial law and was used by British to suppress freedoms and used against Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Is this law still needed after 75 years of independence?” CJI Ramana asked.

He pointed to the “misuse” of the provision and said, “If you see the history of charging under this section, the conviction rate is very low…the enormous power of this section can be compared to a carpenter being given a saw to make an item, (but) uses it to cut the entire forest instead of a tree… That’s the effect of this provision.”

The CJI also clarified that he was not blaming any government but added that the concern was about the “misuse of the law and no accountability of the executive”. The bench comprising Justices Ramana, A.S. Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy was hearing a petition filed by an Army veteran on 24 June, which asserted that Section 124A is “vague” and creates a “chilling effect on free speech”.

The bench further contended that “a statute criminalising expression based on unconstitutionally vague definitions of ‘disaffection towards Government’ etc. is an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right to free expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) and causes constitutionally impermissible ‘Chilling Effect’ on speech.”