To be Retained, Law of Sedition.

By Kishore Kulkarni

The Controversial Colonial law of Sedition was put in abeyance by The Supreme Court in 2022. The Court urged Center and State Governments to not register an FIR for the offence of Sedition. It was the first time in Post Independent India (after 1947), A law was put in abeyance.

Now in present date, The Twenty Second Law Commission headed by Justice. Ritu Raj Awasti, Retired Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court recommended IPC section 124A which deals with the offence of sedition to be retained back.

 The law of Sedition reads as follows

124ASedition.--Whoever by 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.

The crime of Sedition was conceptualized in England. Sedition in England was an offence when a person showed disaffection or a sense of hatred towards the monarch. Since India, at the time of drafting Penal code was under the reign of the British, The law of sedition found its way in Indian legislation. The first case of Sedition, In India was registered against Bal Gangadar Tilak for his magazine Kesari in 1908 and later many people like M.K.Gandhi, Savarkar, Seth Govind Das were prosecuted under the provision. The Punjab High Court, in 1951, opined that the law of sedition though necessary in the colonial period is now inappropriate and must be held to have become void. The constitutional validity  of Sec.124A was challenged in Kedar Nath Singh's Case in 1962 and Apex Court held the law to be constitutionally valid.

The Three Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice N.V.Ramana, in S.G.Vombatkere v. Union of India, held that the law of sedition was a colonial legislation which was widely mis utilized and to be kept in abeyance.

The Law commission has recommended the government to retain the law as it is the essential for the state and has also recommended few changes with respect to the punishment. The existing law, before put in abeyance, prescribed minimum three years of imprisonment for the offence of Sedition. The commission has recommended to increase the minimum punishment from three years to seven years.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the government will hold consultation and meetings and later decide on the recommendations. He further added that there was no compulsion on the Governmnent to accept the recommendations of Law Commission.

The Controversial law of Sedition was used as a tool by the colonial government to suppress the freedom movement and imprison the activists. The law was highly criticized for it misutilization by British Government. In the Post Independent India, As of 2014,there were about 10000 cases registered in which only 384 were convicted, which clearly indicates the lack of efficiency of the law.

As a matter of fact, The country which gave us the law of Sedition, England, had no sedition proceeding for decades and was finally abandoned in 2010.

Thank You for your time.

Kishore Kulkarni

BA LLB Student 

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