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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

04/06/23 09:49 AM IST

Retain sedition in IPC, make it tougher: Panel

In News
  • The Law Commission of India has recommended that the country's 153-year-old colonial law on sedition be retained.
Sedition law
  • It deals with Sedition – a non-bailable offence and was drafted by TB Macaulay and included in the IPC in 1870.
  • Whoever (by words/signs/visible representation) 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.
  • Punishment under the law varies from imprisonment up to three years to a life term and fine.
Supreme court view
  • In Kedar Nath Singh v State of Bihar (1962), the top court upheld the validity of Section 124A, but also attempted to restrict the colonial-era law’s scope for misuse.
  • Invoking the sedition clause requires the existence of a harmful intent to promote violence and the penal provision cannot be utilised to restrict free speech.
  • The government could not put citizens behind bars simply because they chose to disagree with the state policies.
  • In 2022, the SC effectively put on hold the colonial-era penal provision, and asked the Centre/states to desist from arresting/prosecuting people under the contentious provision.
Recommendations by law commission
  • To bring about more clarity in the interpretation, understanding, and usage of the provision and to align it with the SC’s 1962 verdict.
  • To replace mere inclination to incite violence or cause public disorder with proof of actual violence or imminent threat to violence.
  • To enhance the alternative punishment to “7 years”, giving the courts greater room to award punishment in accordance with the gravity of the act.
  • Procedural safeguards to minimise the abuse. For example, Section 154 of the CrPC could be amended to hold that a FIR under Section 124A would be registered only after a police officer conducts a preliminary inquiry.
Source- Hindustan Times

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