Rifat Ibne Alam Ahmed, LL.B, K.L.E. Society’s Law College, Bengaluru
ABSTRACT
Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code 1860, deals with the offence of Sedition. The law was incorporated by the colonial rulers i.e. The British. Over the years the law has been used to arrest people who raised their voice against the policies or functionalities of the Government. The law was used by the British Government to book freedom fighters for the offence of incitement of hatred and disaffection against the Government established by law before independence. Post independence, the law is still being used against people who criticize the policies of the government. While countries like UK, Netherlands, Ghana, Australia etc. and most modern democracies have done away with this draconian law, India, on the contrary, still retains this colonial provision that suppresses freedom of speech and expression, violates the freedom of life and liberty and imposes unreasonable restrictions on the fundamental rights conferred upon the citizens by the Constitution of India.
This paper discusses the history of the law of sedition, attempts to determine its scope and its relevance in a modern democratic setup, how the law has evolved and been abolished in other countries, the mindset of the Indian Judiciary regarding the sacrosanctity of the freedom of speech and expression and the Judicial interpretation of what constitutes reasonable restrictions in the interests of public order. The paper further attempts to answer the grounds for the prevailing exigency to erase the law in question and tries to determine why India actually needs to discard sedition.
Keywords: Section 124-A, Sedition, Democracy, Freedom of speech and expression, Right to Life and Liberty, Reasonable restrictions, Human Rights, Indian Penal Code.
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