Sedition Cases and Judicial Opinion

Table of Contents

Sedition Cases:

Sedition under IPC 124A is defined as an attempt to bring in hatred or contempt or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established according to the law.
Sedition was included as an offence in 1870 under section 124A IPC through the Special Act XVII.

The Supreme Court in Romesh Thapar vs. State of Madras (1950) held that criticism of the government exciting disaffection or bad feelings towards it, cannot be regarded as a justifying ground for restricting the freedom of expression and of the press.
In Gopi Chand vs. The State (1951), and Ram Nandan vs. State of Uttar Pradesh (1959), courts declared that Section 124A of the IPC was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court in Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar (1962)gave constitutional validity to Sedition Cases law.
- The court however said that unless accompanied by an incitement or call for violence, criticism of the government should not be called Sedition Cases.
In Balwant Singh vs. State of Punjab (1995), the Supreme Court said that the real intent of the speech must be taken into account before labelling it seditious.
In Rajat Sharma vs. the Union of India Case, 2021, the court ruled that disagreeing with the views and policies of the government will not be considered Sedition Cases.
Punishment: The maximum punishment under sedition law is of life imprisonment with added fine or an additional jail term of three years.

Freedom of Speech: The sedition law violates Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech. This is considered a threat to democracy.
Objective nature: It is difficult to assess the exact nature of speech that can be considered sedition. It will be difficult to distinguish genuine expression of speech from seditious speech.
Misuse: There have been instances where governments have misused the sedition law to curb dissent.
- Many political opponents, journalists, social activists etc have been victims of the law.
Support for Sedition law:
- Territorial integrity: The law will help in tackling anti-national, secessionist and terrorist elements that threaten territorial integrity of the nation

In the NCRB reports, data on Sedition Cases is given under the headline ‘Offences Against State’.
Sub-head ‘Sedition: In the report, cases registered under the Section 124A of the IPC have been mentioned under the sub-head ‘Sedition Cases’.
Others: The cases registered under Section 121, 121A, 122 and 123 IPC have been given under the second sub-head ‘Others’
In the year 2021, 76 Sedition Cases were registered across the country, a marginal increase from the 73 registered in 2020.
Assam: Out of 475 Sedition Cases registered in the country between 2014 and 2021, Assam accounted for 52 per cent of the cases i.e. 69 cases.
Every one in six Sedition Cases registered in the country came from Assam.
State-wise trend:
Highest cases: Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir followed Assam.
These states accounted for more than half the number of total sedition cases recorded in the country.
No cases: Meghalaya, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry did not register any Sedition Cases.