Write-up

Discuss whether it is desirable to have an offence of sedition in free India?

Talking about the Sedition Law, first we have to see its background. Sedition law in India
was introduced by the British as to keep the Indians from protesting against the government
and to have a law by which they can prosecute a person if he/she is not obeying or planning
to overthrow the government and to keep the people in control.

Sedition in Indian law remains as a criminal offence under 124A of IPC.As of the present
Indian constitution no fundamental right is absolute, most of them have their restrictions,
freedom to speech and expression 19(1)(a) has its restrictions in 19(2), and so likewise others
also have their restrictions but, restrictions should be such that they are not arbitrary, or
excessive in nature, beyond what is required in the interests of the public

In the case of Kedarnath vs State of Bihar, Supreme court explained the scope of sedition
law, it stated that “A citizen has the right to write or speak anything about the government or
its measures, by way of criticism or comment so long that it does not incite people to do
violence against the government established by law or with the intention of disrupting public
order”. People have the right to freedom of speech and expression and they have the right to
criticize the government, so long they do not have the intention to rage war against the
government and incite people to commit violence or disrupt public order, people have the
right to speech, supreme court made it clear that only the words or writing are vigorous
enough to do the above mentioned things can be counted as seditious.

In short merely giving an opinion about something or raising slogans or comments does not
amount to sedition unless those slogans have the intensity to invoke people to violence and to
incite them to overthrow the government established by law. Sedition is not when someone
gives his honest thoughts and views about the government, this happens quite often that
writers are prosecuted under article 124 a, by this people merely giving their opinion are
punished, and sometimes discourages them to give their opinion in the open.

The sedition law is very much misused in the present times, recently sedition was invoked
against amnesty international, on the grounds that certain slogans were raised insulting India
in one of their events. Mere slogans that were raised did not have the intensity to overthrow
the government and still sedition was invoked against them.

Supreme court has stated section 124 A as necessary as it may be used in certain cases, and
should not be strike down, but the lawyers or people who misuse this section should be dealt
with. Thus these types of laws should be revamped, revisited and re-interpreted. The
provision is ambiguous to some extent. It requires a detailed study.