Sedition Has No Room in Modern Democracies, Time for The Law to Be Repealed https://thewire.in/rights/sedition-law-democracy-rights-repeal-misuse
The law has been misused and abused several times even though convictions are extremely rare.
Individuals charged with sedition have to live without their passport, are barred from government jobs and must produce themselves in court at all times as and when required – if they have got bail, that is. The legal costs, the time involved, the effort and the stress for the accused are enormous. The charges have rarely stuck in most cases, but the process itself becomes the punishment. It is so difficult to fight a legal system, even if the system is not biased. And if it is?
In a 2018 Consultation Paper on Sedition, the 21st Law Commission said:
“Democracy is not another name of majoritarianism, on the contrary, it is a system to include every voice, where thought of every person is counted, irrespective of the number of the people backing that idea. In a democracy, it is natural that there will be different and conflicting interpretations of a given account of an event. Not only viewpoints which constitute the majority are to be considered, but at the same time, dissenting and critical opinions should also be acknowledged. Free speech is protected because it is necessary to achieve some greater, often ultimate, social good. In the unforgettable words of Charles Bradlaugh: Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day but the denial slays the life of the people and entombs the hopes of the race.”
Free India has used a series of laws to control the personal freedom of those who have spoken against the policies of the state. Perhaps the most significant today are the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), both of which use the basic argument of division, of “we versus them”. But the colonial provision of S124A is perhaps the worst – it can make a loyal Indian anti-national by the stroke of a dishonest policeman’s pen in an FIR. It is a law that Macaulay himself did not want in his IPC. It is time that, in independent India, that law goes. Abhijit Sengupta is a former secretary, Government of India.