Section 124A, India’s sedition law

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What is the issue?

• The pleas filed by the Editors Guild of India and Major General (Retired) S.G. Vombatkere state that the law causes a ‘chilling effect’ on free speech and is an unreasonable restriction on free expression, a fundamental right.
• The apex court had first issued a notice to the Centre in July 2021 about the challenge to the legality of Section 124A Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalises sedition. 
• Later, on April 27, 2022, Supreme Court fixed May 5 for the final hearing of the petitions, stating that it will not bring any delay in the form of requests for adjournment. 

What is Section 124A of IPC & Sedition law?

• It was drafted by British historian-politician Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1837.
• The Sedition charge, which was included in Section 124 A of the Indian penal code in 1870, was imposed by the British Colonial government to primarily suppress the writings and speeches of prominent Indian freedom fighters. 
• The Indian Penal Code defines sedition (Section 124A) as an offence committed when “any person 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”.
• Disaffection includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity. 
• However, comments without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, will not constitute an offence under this section.
• The penal provision came in handy to muzzle nationalist voices and demands for freedom. 
• The long list of India’s national heroes who figured as accused in cases of sedition includes Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the first person to be convicted of sedition in colonial India. 
• The British government brought the charge alleging articles carried in Tilak’s Marathi newspaper Kesari would encourage people to foil the government’s efforts at curbing the plague epidemic in India. 
• In 1897, Tilak was punished by the Bombay high court for sedition under Section 124A and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. 
• Later, Section 124A was given different interpretations by the Federal Court, which began functioning in 1937, and the Privy Council, which was the highest court of appeal based in London.

• As per section 124A, sedition is a non-bailable offence, punishable with imprisonment from three years up to life, along with a fine. 
• The person charged under this law is also barred from a government job and their passport is seized by the government. 
• Incidentally, the sedition charge was abolished by the United Kingdom in 2010.
• According to Law Commission of India’s 2018 report, while framing the Constitution, the Constituent Assembly had opposed inclusion of sedition as a restriction on freedom of speech and expression under the then-Article 13. 
• As per the Law commission the section 124A should be invoked only in cases where the intention behind any act is to disrupt public order or to overthrow the government with violence and illegal means.

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