New Delhi17 hours ago
The Supreme Court has questioned the Central Government, describing the Sedition Law i.e. Sedition Act as a colonial law of the British era. The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Center what is the need of this law in the country even after 75 years of independence. The court also said that this law poses a very serious threat to the functioning of the institutions. It gives great power to the officials to misuse the law and there is no accountability on them.
2 very harsh comments of the court on the sedition law
- Ax in the hand of the carpenter: A three-judge bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana has said that section 124A of sedition is being misused a lot. It is as if a carpenter has been given an ax to cut wood and he is using it only to cut down the entire forest. This law is having such an effect. If a policeman wants to implicate someone in a village, then he uses this law. People are scared.
- A similar law was used to suppress Gandhiji: The dispute is whether it is colonial. A similar law was used by the British to silence Mahatma Gandhi. Through this law an attempt was made to suppress the freedom movement. Should it be in the law book of our country even after 75 years of independence?
Section 66A of IT Act still issued
- The Supreme Court said that we are not accusing any state government or central government, but see that section 66A of the IT Act is still being used. How many unfortunate people are suffering and no one has been held accountable for this. As far as sedition law is concerned, its history shows that the rate of conviction under it is very low.
- In fact, the Supreme Court itself had expressed surprise that under Section 66A, which was abolished in 2015, still more than a thousand cases have been registered. However, now the Center has said that the cases registered under it will be withdrawn and the police officers will not register any FIR under it in future.
Supreme Court to examine the validity of sedition law
The court said that we will test the validity of this law. The court has asked the Center to respond to the plea of the army officer, in which the officer has said that this law is having a very bad effect on the freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Several petitions have been filed on this matter and now all of them will be heard together. Our concern is the misuse of this law and the accountability of the officials is not fixed.
Center said – law should not end, guideline should be made
On this, the Attorney General on behalf of the Center said that there is no need to repeal this law. Only guidelines should be set, so that this law can fulfill its purpose. To this, the court said that if someone does not want to listen to someone else, then this law can be used to implicate another and it is a very serious question for a person.
What is sedition law?
The definition of sedition has been given in section 124A of the IPC. According to this, if any person writes or speaks anything against the government or even supports such things, then he can be punished with life imprisonment or three years.
326 cases registered from 2014 to 2019
Central government agency NCRB has released the data of cases registered under IPC 124A, arrests and convictions from 2014 to 2019. According to this, 326 cases were registered from 2014 to 2019, in which 559 people were arrested, although only 10 accused could be proved guilty.
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